The Federal Reserve System is structured in such a way as to insulate monetary policy from the political pressures characteristic of the rest of our political system of representative democracy. Do you agree or disagree with this quote?

a) In what sense does the Fed "create money"?

b)Suppose that the minimum required reserve ratio for banks was 1/11. Also suppose that banks held no excess reserves and that currency in circulation was unchanged. What action in the Treasury bill market would the Fed have to take to increase bank checking account deposits by $990 million?

Assuming that banks used all their excess reserves to support an increase in the volume of bank lending, by how much would bank lending expand if the Fed undertook the policy action that was your answer to the question above?