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Plain-language explainers on federal economic and legislative policy

The Federal Reserve

The central bank of the United States sets short-term interest rates, supervises much of the banking system, and manages a balance sheet of several trillion dollars. This page explains how each of those works and links to every explainer in the cluster.

Standing explainer · maintained continuously ·Last updated Sep 1, 2026 · 5 articles in this cluster

The balance sheet

The dual mandate

Rate decisions

How the Fed is organised