FOMC Minutes

8/17/76 Meeting of Federal Open Market Committee August 17, 1976 MINUTES OF ACTIONS A meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee was held in the offices of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D. C., on Tuesday, August 17, 1976, at 9:30 a.m. PRESENT: Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Burns, Chairman Volcker, Vice Chairman Black Coldwell Gardner Jackson Kimbrel Lilly Partee Wallich Winn Guffey, Alternate for Mr. Balles Messrs. Baughman, Mayo, and Morris, Alternate Members of the Federal Open Market Committee Messrs. MacLaury, Eastburn, and Roos, Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, respectively Mr. Broida, Secretary Mr. Altmann, Deputy Secretary Mr. Bernard, Assistant Secretary Mr. O'Connell, General Counsel Mr. Axilrod, Economist (Domestic Finance) Mr. Gramley, Economist (Domestic Business) Messrs. Brandt, Keran, Kichline, Parthemos, and Reynolds, Associate Economists -2- 8/17/76 Mr. Holmes, Manager, System Open Market Account Mr. Pardee, Deputy Manager for Foreign Operations Mr. Coyne, Assistant to the Board of Governors Mr. Keir, Assistant to the Board of Governors Mr. Pizer, Adviser, Division of International Finance, Board of Governors Mrs. Farar, Economist, Open Market Secretariat, Board of Governors Mrs. Deck, Staff Assistant, Open Market Secretariat, Board of Governors Mr. Williams, First Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Messrs. Balbach, Doll, and Eisenmenger, Senior Vice Presidents, Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis, Kansas City, and Boston respectively Mr. Green and Kaminow, Vice Presidents, Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas and Philadelphia respectively Mr. Meek, Monetary Adviser, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Messrs. Fousek, Kareken, and Mrs. Nichols, Economic Advisers, Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Minneapolis, and Chicago respectively Mr. Hall, Economist and Director of Domestic Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Mr. Ozog, Manager, Acceptances and Securities Departments, Federal Reserve Bank of New York By unanimous vote, the minutes of actions taken at the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee held on July 19-20, 1976 were approved. 8/17/76 By unanimous vote, the System open market transactions in foreign currencies during the period July 20 through August 16, 1976, were approved, ratified, and confirmed. By unanimous vote, System open market transactions in Government securities, agency obligations, and bankers' acceptances during the period July 20 through August 16, 1976, were approved, ratified, and confirmed. By unanimous vote, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was authorized and directed, until otherwise directed by the Committee, to execute transactions for the System Account in accordance with the following domestic policy directive: The information reviewed at this meeting suggests that growth in real output of goods and services is remaining moderate in the current quarter. In July industrial production changed little, but total employ ment expanded by a substantial amount. The civilian labor force also increased sharply, and the unemployment rate rose from 7.5 to 7.8 per cent. Retail sales declined in July, following the rebound in June. The rise in the wholesale price index for all commodities remained moder ate, as average prices of farm products and foods declined. However, average prices of industrial commodities rose more than in other recent months. So far this year the advance in the index of average wage rates has been some what below the rapid rate of increase during 1975. The average value of the dollar against leading foreign currencies has remained relatively steady in recent weeks, despite some disturbances in exchange markets for European currencies. In June the U. S. foreign trade deficit increased, but the deficit for the second quarter as a whole was somewhat smaller than that for the first quarter. 8/17/76 M1, which had declined slightly in June, expanded Inflows of the time and savings appreciably in July. deposits included in the broader aggregates were con siderably stronger than in June, and growth in M2 and M3 was rapid. Market interest rates have declined some what further in recent weeks. In light of.the foregoing devlopments, it is the policy of the Federal Open Market Committee to foster financial conditions that will encourage continued economic expansion, while resisting inflationary pres sures and contributing to a sustainable pattern of international transactions. To implement this policy, while taking account of developments in domestic and international financial markets, the Committee seeks to maintain prevailing bank reserve and money market conditions over the period immediately ahead, provided that monetary aggregates appear to be growing at about the rates currently expected. It was agreed that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on September 21, 1976, at 9:30 a.m. The meeting adjourned.

Federal Reserve (1976, August 16). FOMC Minutes. Fomc Minutes, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/fomc_minutes_19760817

@misc{wtfs_fomc_minutes_19760817,
  author = {Federal Reserve},
  title = {FOMC Minutes},
  year = {1976},
  month = {Aug},
  howpublished = {Fomc Minutes, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/fomc_minutes_19760817},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}