Origins of the use of Treasury debt in open market operations: lessons for the present

David Marshall

Economic Perspectives, 2002, vol. 26, issue Q I, 45-54

Abstract: The Federal Reserve currently conducts open market operations primarily in Treasury securities. It has not always done so. In its earliest years, the Fed conducted open market operations primarily in private securities, such as bankers' acceptances. The Fed's choice of instruments was based both on economic doctrine and to help foster a liquid secondary market in these securities. The move to reliance on Treasury securities resulted from changes in the financial markets and the prevailing economic doctrine. These historical antecedents may have relevance for current problems facing the Federal Reserve.

Keywords: Federal Reserve banks; Open market operations; Debt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publicati ... es/2002/1qepart5.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedhep:y:2002:i:qi:p:45-54:n:v.26no.1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Perspectives from Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lauren Wiese ().