The International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve and their Role in the Economic Crisis

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,0, University of Bonn, language: English, abstract: This term paper is going to elaborate on the tasks and functions of certain international financial institutions, and subsequently on their role and course of action in the economic crisis. The institutions selected for that end are the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve. Interestingly, all of these institutions have different spheres of influence, namely worldwide, Europe and the US, which also responds to the global character of the crisis itself. This suggests a global rescue effort which "transcended national boundaries" (Mihm and Roubini 177). This paper is concerned with the question what significant measures the respective institutions took and whether these actions were consistent with their original mandate and key objectives. For this purpose, each international institution will be examined individually, first according to their function and tasks (in tranquil times), and then with focus on their measures and reactions in the course of the economic crisis.