What are the major assets and liabilities of the Federal Reserve System? Describe each briefly.

Explain how the Fed sets the reserve ratio. Is the reserve ratio and the money supply positively or inversely related? Define: excess reserves and fully loaned institution.

What is the money multiplier and how is it related to the money supply and the monetary base?

Define open market operations. How does the Fed know how much money it needs to increase (decrease) the monetary base through open market operations?

If the Fed wants to increase the money supply, should it make an open market purchase or sale? Should it make more discount loans or fewer? If the Fed wants to decrease the money supply, what should it do?

If a bank has $10,000 in excess reserves, what is the most new lending that it should do? Why shouldn't it do more than that amount?

A student remarks, "If any one bank can safely loan only an amount equal to its excess reserves, I don't understand how the banking system as a whole can loan out an amount equal to several times the initial excess reserves in the system." Resolve this seeming paradox.