Budgeting in a federal system

Thanks to the development of the Web, the federal government is now able to make an amazing amount of information about its annual budget instantly available to the public. You can find information about the president's proposed budget for the most recent fiscal year, as well as budgets from past years, from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/. Go to the OMB's budget page and scroll down the page until you see "Previous Budgets". At the Advanced Search option, select "FY 2001", then click Go. On the page that is returned, you will find a link that will let you browse the FY01 budget. Find a publication called Historical Tables that outlines long-term trends in government spending. In this resource, locate Table 4.2 Percentage Distribution of Outlays by Agency: 1962-2005. Study the relative distribution of funds, and the changes in agency allocations over time. How could one use these numbers to illustrate the division of labor in the nation's federal system?




National banker: The Federal Reserve System

Even though its members are not elected by the public, the members of the Federal Reserve System, including its chairman Alan Greenspan, wield tremendous power over the nation's economy. The Fed maintains twelve regional Reserve Banks, one of which is located in Chicago. You can find the Chicago Fed on the internet at http://www.chicagofed.org/. At the Chicago Fed's home page you will find a link to information about the Fed. Following that link will lead you to a page that connects to a brief on-line tour of the Chicago Fed, which includes some discussion of the system as a whole. Navigate your way through the four main parts of the tour. Based on the information in the tour, the Fed appears to behave both like a competitive private business and an agent of the government. What are some examples of each behavior that the tour describes?