{"id":1072,"date":"2015-05-12T18:56:56","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T18:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/masterymacro1xngcxmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=1072"},"modified":"2018-07-30T13:31:26","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T13:31:26","slug":"why-it-matters-11","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/oldwestbury-wm-macroeconomics\/chapter\/why-it-matters-11\/","title":{"raw":"Why It Matters: Monetary Policy","rendered":"Why It Matters: Monetary Policy"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_2323\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"307\"]\"Photograph<\/a> Federal Reserve<\/a> by Josh, CC-BY-ND<\/a>.<\/span>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWe noted earlier that the government has two ways of influencing the economy. The first was fiscal policy by which the government raises or lowers the federal budget deficit.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe second, which we will introduce in this module, is monetary policy, which is how a special part of the government called a central bank regulates the availability of credit and regulates the banking system. The central bank of the United States is the Federal Reserve System (or Fed).<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs this is written, interest rates have been unusually low for several years. Some are barely above zero. This is not so good for savers, but it is very good for borrowers.<\/span>\r\n