Research Paper on:
The Federal Reserve: An Overview

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The Federal Reserve was created with the intention of forming an overseeing agency for controlling the money supply. Authorized by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, this  political entity is in actuality composed of twelve district banks and twenty-five branches. Supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve specifies mandatory  membership for all national banks but only admits state banks if they meet certain criteria. Membership criteria include keeping a certain amount of funds on deposit (a reserve) with  a Reserve Bank. The member banks benefit in that they are issued Federal Reserve notes or credits that makes them more proficient in meeting their customers needs. As  the Reserve banks raise or lower their discount rates on interest the national supply of money fluctuates. The Board of Governors of the  Federal Reserve consists of seven members that serve fourteen year terms. Each is appointed by the U.S. President and these appointments are approved by the Senate. For four  years of their term one of these Governors serves as the Reserves chairman. Under the Board of Governors there are individual Reserve bank boards. These are composed of  nine individuals, six of whom are elected by the Reserves membership. Of these six, three are bankers and three are non-bankers. The remaining three of the nine bank  board members are appointed by the Board of Governors itself. The Federal Reserve affects many aspects of our nations financial affairs. Among  the more critical of these are the regulation of the amount of currency and bank credit that occurs through the issuance of discounts, open-market operations, and reserve requirements. Even