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EXCESS RESERVES: The amount of bank reserves over and above those that the Federal Reserve System requires a bank to keep. Excess reserves are what banks use to make loans. If a bank has more excess reserves, then it can make more loans. This is a key part of the Fed's ability to control the money supply. Using open market operations, the Fed can add to, or subtract from, the excess reserves held by banks. If the Fed, for example, adds to excess reserves, then banks can make more loans. Banks make these loans by adding to their customers' checking account balances. This is of some importance, because checking account balances are an major part of the economy's money supply. In essence, controlling these excess reserves is the Fed's number one method of "printing" money without actually printing money.
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INFLATION A persistent increase in the average price level in the economy. It is measured by the inflation rate, the annual percentage change in a price index such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or GDP price deflator. Inflation is the most common phenomenon associated with the price level. Two related phenomena are deflation, a decrease in the price level, and disinflation, a decrease in the inflation rate. Inflation is one of two key macroeconomic problems. The other is unemployment.
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PURPLE SMARPHIN
[What's This?]
Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time touring the new suburban shopping complex looking to buy either a package of 3 by 5 index cards, the ones without lines or a blue mechanical pencil. Be on the lookout for slightly overweight pizza delivery guys.
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This isn't me! What am I?
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Parker Brothers, the folks who produce the Monopoly board game, prints more Monopoly money each year than real currency printed by the U.S. government.
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"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." -- Mark Twain
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BOP
Balance of Payments
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