24. Federal Reserve · Notable · Needs Congress
Restore the pre-2008 system founded on open-market operations
Printed page 735 24. Federal Reserve
“Congress should bring back the pre-2008 system, founded on open-market operations. This minimizes the Fed’s power to engage in preferential credit allocation.”
What has happened
- Not started
The post-2008 operating framework is intact and Congress has not legislated against it. The implementation notes through the window show the full ample-reserves toolkit in operation — a target range for the federal funds rate steered by the interest rate on reserve balances, a standing overnight repurchase agreement facility with a $500 billion aggregate operation limit, and a standing overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility with a $160 billion per-counterparty daily limit — rather than a scarce-reserves regime in which open market operations set the rate. No bill in the 119th Congress would restore the pre-2008 system, and the Federal Reserve's own 2025 framework review changed the Committee's strategy statement without touching the operating framework.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Shares the Chapter 24 cluster negative search. The Committee decision of 2025-10-29 to conclude the reduction of its securities holdings settles the point in the opposite direction: the Federal Reserve intends to keep a balance sheet large enough to operate in ample reserves.
Related Chapter 24 items on the same instrument: #2010, #2011, #2012, #2015.
- Action
- restore
- Object
- Pre-2008 open-market-operations monetary framework
- ID
- 2016