This paper is intended to be an analysis of discount window borrowing as it relates to more general issues of monetary control. The topic deserves a new look because of the central role of discount window borrowing under the post-October 6, 1979 "reserve targeting" operating strategy.

It is often the case that banks in the US are willing to borrow in the fed funds market (the interbank market for funds) at higher rates than the ones they could obtain by borrowing at the Fed's discount window. This phenomenon is commonly explained as the consequence of the existence of a...

In the late 1970s the money stock was growing at a faster rate than desired, the rate of inflation was accelerating, and the dollar was steadily depreciating in the foreign exchange markets. In an attempt to reverse these developments the Federal Reserve on October 6, 1979 announced several...