FOMC Minutes

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 on Saturday, September 27, 1941, at 10:05 a.m.

PRESENT:

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Eccles, Chairman

Sproul, Vice Chairman

Szymczak

McKee

Ransom

Draper

Fleming

Leach

Davis

Mr. Peyton

Mr. Morrill, Secretary

Mr. Carpenter, Assistant Secretary

Mr. Wyatt, General Counsel

Mr. Goldenweiser, Economist

Mr. Williams, Associate Economist

Mr. Dreibelbis, Assistant General Counsel

Mr. Rouse, Manager of the System Open

Market Account

Mr. Piser, Senior Economist in the Divi

sion of Research and Statistics of the

Board of Governors

Messrs. Roy A. Young, Alfred H. Williams,

C. S. Young, Leedy, and Gilbert, alternate

members of the Federal Open Market Committee

Messrs. McLarin and Day, Presidents of the

Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and San

Francisco, respectively

Mr. Clayton, Assistant to the Chairman

Mr. Thurston, Special Assistant to the

Chairman

Mr. Sienkiewicz, Secretary of the Presi

dents' Conference

Mr. Morrill stated that Mr. Leedy had been appointed and had

assumed his duties as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas

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City, that in

February of this year the Federal Reserve Banks of Min

neapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco elected the President of the

Kansas City Bank, when appointed, as an alternate to Mr. Peyton as a

member of the Federal Open Market Committee,

that a record had been

received of the election of Alfred H. Williams to serve as an alternate

to Mr. Fleming as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, and

that it

was the opinion of counsel that Messrs. Williams and Leedy were

qualified to take the oath of office and assume their duties as alter

nate members of the Committee.

Upon motion duly made and seconded,

and by unanimous vote, the minutes of the

meeting of the Federal Open Market Commit

tee held on June 10, 1941, were approved.

Upon motion duly made and seconded,

and by unanimous vote, the actions of the

executive committee of the Federal Open

Market Committee, as set forth in the

minutes of the meeting of the executive

committee on June 10, 1941, were approved,

ratified and confirmed.

Those present were then furnished with copies of a report pre

pared at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York relating to the System

open market account and the Government security market.

viewed the important points in

no transactions in

Mr. Rouse re

the report and stated that there were

the account since the last meeting of the Committee

so that the usual action with respect to the ratification of transac

tions in

the account would not be necessary.

connection with the October first

He also stated that, in

reallocation of securities in

the

9/27/41

System account,

some study had been given to the earnings and expenses

of the Federal Reserve Banks for the current year and that from the

estimates that had been made it

appeared that total expenses would ex

ceed earnings by approximately $500,000 which would be offset by profits

of $504,000 realized from sales from the System account during the

year.

Mr. Szymczak read a memorandum dated September 26, 1941, from

Mr. Smead with respect to the earnings and expenses of the Federal Re

serve Banks during 1941, which was in substantial agreement with the

comments made by Mr. Rouse, and Mr. Szymczak stated that the memorandum

would be checked and copies thereof furnished to the Presidents before

they left Washington.

A copy of the memorandum has been placed in the

files of the Federal Open Market Committee.

It

was understood that

the question of the earnings and expenses of the Federal Reserve Banks

would receive consideration by the Presidents of the Federal Reserve

Banks in their separate conference which would be held following this

meeting.

Upon motion duly made and seconded,

the report submitted by Mr. Rouse was

accepted and ordered filed.

Chairman Eccles stated that, before the reports of Messrs.

Goldenweiser and John H. Williams and the consideration of open market

policy, he would like to suggest that Mr. Ransom make a statement with

respect to the discussions at the Treasury relating to action on reserve

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requirements and the subject of Treasury financing.

Mr. Ransom reviewed the discussions which he and Mr. Golden

weiser had had with representatives of the Treasury which culminated

in action by the Board on September 23, 1941, to increase reserve re

quirements of member banks to the maximum of the Board's authority and

the issuance of a joint statement by Chairman Eccles and the Secretary

of the Treasury with respect to the granting of further authority over

bank reserves to the Board of Governors.

ment with a suggestion that it

Mr. Ransom concluded his state

would be helpful, in further discussions

which were to be had with the Treasury, if the Presidents would adopt

some statement with respect to the desirability of having a pattern of

rates for the financing of the defense program and which the monetary

authorities would support by such measures as might be necessary, in

cluding open market operations by the Federal Reserve System.

of the substance of Mr.

Ransom's statement has been placed in

A copy

the files

of the Federal Open Market Committee.

In a discussion of what might be regarded as reasonable rates

at which Treasury financing could be done, Mr. Ransom referred to the

steady decline in rates that had occurred during recent years and stated

that he had expressed the opinion in the discussions with the Treasury

representatives that it

was extremely important that a policy be adopted

which would put a floor under interest rates in order to prevent their

decline to a point which would bring disastrous results.

He also said

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that he felt the question of the broader application of selective

credit controls should be faced and disposed of.

Mr. Sproul stated that it

had been contemplated that before

final action was taken by the Board to increase reserve requirements

a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee and the Presidents of

Federal Reserve Banks would be held for the purpose of discussing the

matter with them, but that circumstances arose, including the appear

ance of the Secretary of the Treasury at hearings on the price control

bill, which made it

necessary for the Board to take action on September

23.

Messrs.

Goldenweiser and Williams were then called upon for

statements with respect to the present business and credit situation.

Mr. Goldenweiser, after stating that copies of the review of

the month which would appear in the Federal Reserve Bulletin for Oc

tober and would contain a review of current developments in industry

and agriculture would be furnished to those present, referred briefly

to the developments which he said clearly indicated the existence of

an inflationary situation at the present time and the need for further

action to fight inflation.

He addressed the remainder of his remarks to some of the prob

lems arising in

connection with Treasury financing.

According to esti

mates now available, during the rest of this fiscal year and the fiscal

year 1943, the Treasury would have to borrow approximately $30,000,000,000

($13,500,000,000 in fiscal 1942 and $16,500,000,000 in

fiscal 1943)

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and, if

nothing more were done than was being done at present to sell

Government securities to others than banks, the banks would probably

take not less than $15,000,000,000 of this total.

The expansion in

bank deposits that would take place, he said, raised acutely the ques

tion as to the desirability of further powers over reserve require

ments and as to the kind of financing that should be done by the Treas

ury.

He stated that the heart of the problem was the rates of interest

at which the Treasury would borrow, that interest rates had declined

to a record low level, but that, in view of the growing demand for

funds by the Government and industry and the decrease in

of funds due to growth of currency in

the supply

excess of gold imports, there

would probably be no further decline, but a firming tendency.

On the

other hand, there was no reason to expect a general or substantial

rise in rates.

He suggested that the alternative courses of action before

the System were:

as it saw fit,

(1)

To do nothing and let

the market rise or fall

which he thought was not a policy that should be seri

ously considered.

(2)

To continue the policy that had been pursued

during the last three or four years of attempting to maintain orderly

market conditions, which implied an underlying conception of a natural

market, a conception which he said did not accord with conditions as

they exist today.

In his opinion the orderly market policy was about

as much out of line with reality now as discount rate policy had become

some years ago.

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(3) In the event additional powers were obtained, to proceed to tighten

credit controls to a point where excess reserves would almost entirely

disappear,

a substantial number of banks would be short of funds, and

interest rates would be allowed to rise.

Such a policy would have to

be on the theory that higher interest rates were cheap insurance against

inflation.

In present circumstances this would not be a feasible pol

icy for the reason that it

would increase the cost of Government bor

rowing without being effective in preventing price rises, and it

could

not be carried out with the approval of other agencies of Government.

It would also raise serious problems about the decline in the capital

value of outstanding securities.

(4)

To adopt a policy under which

a pattern of interest rates would be agreed upon from time to time

and the System would be pledged to support that pattern for a definite

period.

The pattern of rates would not need to provide for the same

range of fluctuation on all types of rates.

It might limit fluctuations

on long-term rates to a narrow range, and permit intermediate and short

term rates to respond more freely to current market influences.

This

appeared to him to be the wisest and most practicable policy at this

time.

He commented that the problem presented by the suggestion of

a pattern of rates was whether it

was possible effectively to combat

inflation without having rates rise more substantially than would be

contemplated by the pattern, that there were differences of opinion

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on that point, but that he felt that rates probably would not go up

materially in view of the existence of a large volume of funds and the

growth of savings out of a rising income.

The support that the System

might need to give to the market would not be, in his opinion, on a

scale that would offset such restrictive actions as the System might

want to take.

Mr. Goldenweiser then referred briefly to the preferential

rates established during the World War on the rediscount by Federal

Reserve Banks of paper secured by Government securities, and expressed

the opinion that in

supporting a pattern of rates determined by the

System and the Treasury in the present situation the System would be

following the modern equivalent of that, and that the System would be

well advised if

it

took that course.

He made the further statement that in

any case it

was the pri

mary function of a central banking institution in time of war to con

tribute its major efforts toward meeting the needs of the Government,

and that in his opinion the responsibility of the System in

of credit control could be met, in

the field

so far as credit control could be

effective in combating inflation, without interfering with its

ability

to stand by a pattern of rates agreed upon by the System and the Treas

ury.

At the conclusion of Mr. Goldenweiser's statement there were

distributed copies of the review of the month for the October Federal

Reserve Bulletin and memoranda dated September 26,

1941, from Miss

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Gunhild Anderson of the Division of Research and Statistics of the

Board of Governors on the estimated Treasury cash requirements for

the fiscal years 1942 and 1943, and by Mr. Piser on the estimated

distribution of the Government debt.

The meeting recessed and reconvened at 2:15 p.m. with the

same attendance as at the morning session, and in addition, Mr.

Thurston.

Mr. Williams expressed the opinion that the rise in industrial

production would be less rapid than during the past year, and that

there was some danger of unemployment resulting from a broad applica

tion of priorities, which indicated that the problem of fighting in

flation was not one of taking all forms of anti-inflationary action

that might be available, but rather a question of the determination

of the character and the timing of the action to be taken.

out that the System could attack the problem of inflation in

He pointed

only a

limited way, that there were other fronts over which the System had

no control, including agricultural prices and wages and on which little

headway was being made, and that it

was not possible to adopt an ef

fective program which did not include effective policies with respect

to these matters.

He felt that the Administration's tax program was progressing

satisfactorily but that sufficient efforts had not been made to tap

non-bank funds for the purchase of Government securities, that a great

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deal more could be done in that field, that that was a point on which

the System in its

further negotiations with the Treasury could press

for consideration as having a bearing on the System's responsibilities,

an, that before the System could adopt an intelligent program with re

spect to what, if

any, further credit restriction was needed, it

would

be necessary to ascertain to what extent Treasury needs could be met

from non-banking funds and to agree on a financing program which would

be attractive to non-banking investors.

In connection with references that had been made to what might

be regarded as an artificial market, Mr. Williams expressed the opinion

that it

would be a mistake for the Federal Reserve System to create a

situation in the Government security market which would make it

appear

that the market had to have continuous support as that eventually would

cast doubt upon the public credit.

He stated that something short of

that should be considered, and that he felt that at this stage the Sys

tem should devote itself to a policy which would contemplate (1) full

cooperation with the Treasury in developing a program which would tap

non-banking funds to the fullest possible extent, (2)

exploration with

the Treasury of the possibility of stabilizing interest rates, and (3)

a study of the changes that should be made in the basis for determining

reserve requirements,

as the present was an excellent time to make such

fundamental changes as would contribute to the stability of the money

market.

On the question whether there should be a further reduction in

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excess reserves he felt that the important point was what the effect

would be on the Government security market, that if

excess reserves

were going to be reduced in any event by currency withdrawals and an

increase in bank loans and investments the rate of interest could not

be expected to decline much further,

that we could not avoid the con

clusion that further increases in reserve requirements would increase

interest rates and create a need for open market action that would

not otherwise exist, and that before any action in

that direction was

taken we should examine the motives behind it.

Mr. Williams'

statement was followed by a discussion of the

possible effects of the Board's recent action to increase reserve re

quirements,

the further steps that might be taken in the field of credit

control, the place that selective credit controls might play in the

picture, and what the immediate future policy of the Federal Open Mar

ket Committee might be.

Mr. Sproul stated that the immediate problem before the Com

mittee was what action was to be taken with respect to open market op

erations,

that in

his opinion there would be further reactions in the

market over the next few weeks to the increase in reserve requirements

which might necessitate some action by the Open Market Committee, but

that any transactions necessitated by that situation undoubtedly could

be handled under existing authorities.

Mr. Sproul also stated that he

favored exploration with the Treasury of the possibility of determining

upon a pattern of rates, that the present might be a desirable time to

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undertake such a program, but that no commitment should be made by

the System to support such a pattern of rates without regard to what

might be the financing policies of the Treasury, and that any agreement

with respect to rates should be coupled with the adoption by the Treas

ury of a plan of financing designed to attract as many non-banking funds

as possible.

Mr. Ransom stated that any program agreed upon should not be in

the nature of an unconditional commitment by the System to maintain in

terest rates, but that it

would not be possible to reach an agreement

on the matter with the Treasury without some commitment on the part of

the System that it

would take action within its

power to support the

pattern of rates agreed upon.

Mr. Sproul suggested that arrangements be made to have a repre

sentative member of the Federal Open Market Committee participate in the

further discussions with representatives of the Treasury, and there was

unanimous agreement that that should be done.

There followed a discussion of various questions involved in

the matters which were to be the subject of further consideration with

the Treasury and of Mr.

Ransom's suggestion that a statement be agreed

upon with respect to a pattern of rates at which the financing of the

defense program would be undertaken and which the monetary authorities

would undertake to support by such measures within their power as might

be necessary.

It

was the consensus that this suggestion was a matter

which should be taken up at the meeting of the Presidents'

Conference

9/27/41

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with the Board of Governors to be held tomorrow.

Consideration was then given to the authority to be granted

to the Executive Committee to direct the execution of transactions in

the System account and Mr.

Sproul stated that, in his opinion,

a renew

al of existing authorities would be adequate to meet any situation that

could be foreseen at the present time and that in the event further ac

tion became necessary another meeting of the Federal Open Market Com

mittee should be called.

Thereupon, upon motion duly made

and seconded, the following resolution,

which was in the same form as the reso

lution adopted at the meeting of the

Committee on June 10, 1941, was adopted

by unanimous vote:

That the executive committee be directed un

til

otherwise directed by the Federal Open Market

Committee to arrange for such transactions for the

System open market account (including purchases,

sales, exchanges, replacement of maturing securi

ties, and letting maturities run off without re

placement) as in its judgment from time to time

may be advisable in the light of existing condi

tions; provided that the aggregate amount of se

curities held in the account at the close of this

date shall not be increased or decreased by more

than $200,000,000.

Mr. Morrill referred to the fact that under date of August 15,

1941, a letter was received from Under Secretary of the Treasury Bell

stating that there was being published in the monthly Treasury Bulletin

a tabulation showing the ownership,

obligations of the United States,

by issues, of direct and guaranteed

that in

this tabulation the securities

9/27/41

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held in the System account were included with securities held by in

vestors other than banks and insurance companies and Government agencies

and trust funds, and that authority was desired to include the System's

holdings with the holdings of Government agencies and trust funds under

the caption "Held by Government Agencies and Trust Funds and by Federal

Reserve Banks".

After conferring with Mr. Rouse, and with the approval

of Chairman Eccles, Mr. Morrill sent a letter to Mr. Bell, on August

21, 1941, stating that there would be no objection to the publication

of these figures in the manner indicated, with the understanding that

separate figures showing the holdings of Government agencies and trust

funds would not be released in

to make it

Banks'

some other connection in

such manner as

possible by subtraction to determine the Federal Reserve

holdings of individual outstanding issues, and that it would be

preferable as long as the publication of the figures was continued in

the form proposed,

to continue the lag of approximately two months

between the date as of which the figures were published and the release

of the Treasury Bulletin.

The action of Chairman Eccles in au

thorizing the letter to Mr. Bell was ap

proved and ratified by unanimous vote.

Thereupon the meeting adjourned.

Secretary.

Chairman.