Zach Harney, Financial Planning: The role of the Federal Reserve: Safeguarding the U.S. economy

If you’ve listened to financial news at all over the last two years, it’s impossible to miss the constant arguments about what the Federal Reserve should do next. But it isn’t always clear why the Fed is so important, or where it gets its power from. The Federal Reserve, often referred to as “the Fed,” was established in response to a series of financial panics — particularly the banking panic of 1907. That crisis highlighted our need for a central banking system to give stability to the U.S. economy. Before...