Part one with its own citation
Go to www.federalreserve.gov/ and click on the About the Fed tab.

Review the members of the board and their tenure, discuss how they are selected, the purpose and function of the federal reserve system.

An important aspect of the supply of money is reserve balances.

Go to http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/ and locate the most recent release.

This site reports changes in factors that affect depository reserve balances.
a. What is the current reserve balance?
b. What is the change in reserve balance since a year ago?c. Based on parts a and b, does it appear that the money supply should be increasing or decreasing? Is this a good thing for the U.S. economy?

Traveler’s checks have no reserve requirements and are included in the M1 measure of the money supply. When people travel during summer and convert some of their checking account deposits into traveler’s checks, what happens to the money supply? Why?

Part two with its own citation

Besides the consumer credit side, financial institutions make plenty of commercial loans. Part of analyzing the credit risk of a company is to determine its financial strengths and wherewithal to repay the loan. Choose a publicly traded company (one that you can access financial statements, etc.) from any industry.

What are the fundamental characteristics and industry dynamics for the company you selected? Prepare an industry analysis focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the industry and a comparison of where your company ranks in this industry (competitors, market share, growth potential of current market, growth potential of future markets, etc.). Analyze the credit risk to a financial firm if this company wished to borrow an amount equal to 10% of its current long-term debt.

Discuss how commercial lending has recently changed from the 2009 recession.  Has lending tightened to corporations?  Provide current article research to support your findings.