The federal reserve uses three tools to set monetary policy through the banks. identify these three tools and provide an example of how each tool affects individual consumers.

The Federal Reserve was created by an act in 1913 that made it responsible for formulating US monetary policy. There are three tools the Federal Reserve used to set monetary policy: open market operations, the discount rate, and reserve requirements.

Explanation:

Open market operations involve buying and selling government-issued securities. For example, when the Federal Reserve wants to lower the interest rate, they buy treasury bills (T-bills) from the market. This increases the liquidity or the amount of money circulating in the economy, and this lowers interest rates. This makes it easier to borrow money in the sense it is costs less to  borrow money for individual consumers looking to borrow money or obtain credit from banks. On the other hand, if the Federal Reserve starts to sell T-bills, this is a sign the interest rate will rises. When this happens it is likely that borrowing will be more expensive for the consumer. T-bills are sold less when the interest rates are rising because the rising interest rate makes them less profitable.  

The discount rate is the interest rate banks and similar institutions are charged to borrow Reserve funds. The discount rate is what banks and other institutions that accept monetary deposits have to pay in order to borrow money from the Federal Reserve. There are three levels to the kinds of credits that banks and depository institutions can qualify for: primary credit, secondary credit, and seasonal credit.  Primary credit is for institutions in good standing that have good credit. Secondary credit is reserved for those institutions that are having some sort of financial difficulty and cannot qualify for the primary rates. Seasonal credits are reserved for special parties that may have seasonal needs or are part of a seasonal program like entities with seasonal needs like a financial program that is designed to promote tourism or that will help farmers when there are fluctuations for them in the money they have available.

Reserve requirements are a means of securing the deposits made in financial institutions around the country. Banks and other financial entities are required to keep an amount of money on deposit in the Federal Reserve to cover its liabilities against the deposits their customers make. The more liabilities an institution has, the more it has to leave in reserve. This helps to ensure deposit transactions for the average bank customer are secure and that the financial entity will not collapse if many withdrawals are made.