Central Bank and 12 Regional Feds: Manipulating Today’s Economy (Page 1/3)
September 8, 2015
Akira Kondo

PictureThe Federal Reserve Bank in Washington D.C.
The Federal Reserve Bank, as also known as lender of the last resort, monitors every aspect of the U.S. economy while mainly focusing on inflation and employment of the world’s largest economy through its monetary policy goals. Its name may not sound familiar to you unless you are an economist or a college student, who is majoring in economics or finance. However, you may have seen this Federal Reserve Bank in your neighbor, as it is not alone. There are 12 Federal Reserve Banks across the United States and those are located in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Richmond, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Atlanta. Along with those 12 Federal Reserve Banks across the states, the main Federal Reserve Bank is located in Washington D.C., where a current Chair of the Board of Governors, Janet Yellen, is sitting in the office. 

Unlike ordinal banks, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, where you often drop by in your daily life, people usually do not visit any of those Federal Reserve Banks. They do not provide any ATM services or housing loans. Most likely, they even never let you in any of those 12 Federal Reserve Banks along with the main Federal Reserve Bank in D.C. or you may even be caught by security officers if you are really trying to step into the building. However, you may not notice that you are using Washington or Jackson bills in your daily life, which are actually issued from one of 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

What is Federal Reserve Bank?

While this Federal Reserve Bank (or simply “Fed” afterwards) is often seen on news from Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg and so on, there are, as mentioned earlier, 12 more regional Federal Reserve Banks locating across the United States. The other Feds are located in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Richmond, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Atlanta. An each Fed monitors and studies regional economies while regularly reporting the current economic status to the central Fed in Washington D.C.

The Fed in D.C. is the Feds’ headquarter, where the Chair of the Board of Governors, Janet Yellen, is manipulating today’s economy. This Fed is often called, the “central bank,” making domestic as well as foreign economists easily to distinguish between the nation’s bank and ordinal banks. For instance, Bank of Japan, which is often abbreviated as BOJ, is Japan’s central bank. People’s Bank of China, which is commonly shortened to PBOC, is China’s central bank. According to a former Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke, “central banks are very important institutions; they have helped to guide the development of modern financial and monetary systems and they play a major role in economic policy.” Thus, the Fed is the institution that manipulates the economy through its monetary policy goals. 
What is the role of Fed?

Since the capitalism has been imbedded in the market-driven U.S. economy, the role of Fed is quite simple. However, it does not mean each Fed is sitting back to relax. The role of Fed is very critical to the economy while its economic activity highly influences global economy as well. Any words from the Fed is closely monitored by both domestic and international economists as well as investors and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is the stage that the Fed guides its monetary policy goals. This FOMC is generally held eight times a year at the main Fed in D.C. but it may be held more often depending on the state of the economy. 

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