Demystifying the FedMaster ClassIn-Person

The Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) is the nation’s central bank, and unquestionably one of the most prominent—and powerful—institutions in our system of government. However, for much of its history, the Fed was content to be shrouded in mystery. While the Fed has become more transparent in explaining what it does in the last thirty years, its mission and footprint in the financial system and the economy have also expanded significantly, especially during the global financial crisis in 2008-09 and the global pandemic collapse in 2020.  This master class will attempt to demystify the Fed as an institution and to explain in simple terms: What are its goals? What are its tools to achieve those goals? How and why has its domain expanded? The class will cover a number of small case studies that help to answer the above questions, with attention paid to the post-war decades of the twentieth century and the first twenty-five years of the twenty-first century.

ECONOMICS, US HISTORY, SOCIAL STUDIES