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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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RATIONAL IGNORANCE

The decision NOT to become informed about a topic (such as what a political candidate wants to do) because the cost of acquiring the information is more than the expected benefit. The rational decision to remain ignorant about a subject is a straightforward application of utility maximization and along with the related notion of rational abstention, is a source of voter apathy and government inefficiency.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the shopping mall trying to buy either a coffee cup commemorating the 1960 Presidential election or a how-to book on fixing your computer, with illustrations. Be on the lookout for poorly written technical manuals.
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The first "Black Friday" on record, a friday marked by a major financial catastrophe, occurred on September 24, 1869 -- A FRIDAY -- when an attempted cornering of the gold market induced a financial crises and economy-wide depression.
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