ECONOMIC FORECASTING AT Bank OF GREEN
Answer question based on the attached case attached on this order.
Q. If the Federal Reserve decides to act, how will that affect investors that deal with Bank of Green? Using answers to issues discussed in the case, what changes Bank of Green should make to the products and services they are offering?
please use reliable online resources, that I can reach online for more reference.
ECONOMIC FORECASTING
AT BANK OF GREEN
You walk into the offices of Bank of Green early in the morning on February 2
nd
, 2006. You are
employed by the bank to market proprietary financial products to moderate
to high net worth customers.
Going into the break room to grab a cup of coffee, you flip on the TV to CNBC to catch the morning
financial news. The commentator says “… and the latest release shows that consumer confidence has
fallen for the second strai
ght month. Given this, and the previous statistics on business inventories, it is
not surprising that investors are nervous. So, now, all eyes turn to the Fed”. You switch the TV off. It
looks like the economy is going to be the topic of discussion for
the next week. More importantly, the
people you work with will expect you to know what is happening (and maybe explain it to them). It is
going to be a busy day.
Bank of Green is a mid
–
tier regional bank, focused primarily on consumer and small busine
ss lending.
Historically the bank has funded its loans through traditional bank deposits. However, given the rapid
development in convenience of mutual funds and online investing, the bank has shifted its focus to
offering a larger range of financial pro
ducts and advice to its high
–
end customers. This included offering
its own mutual funds, annuity and insurance products from other companies, and financial planning
courses
.
Bank of Green has a large staff dedicated to customer relations. Jobs ran
ge from handling accounts to
marketing consumers’ products to providing financial advice. Your job is to work with this staff to
determine what the best products are and how best to market them. You interact daily with people from
all over the bank, incl
uding some of the bank’s major customers (since they are a good source of
information on how the company is doing).
A large part of the bank’s customer base is retired individuals who have had long
–
term relationships with
the bank. These individuals ha
ve a range of financial expertise, some being dedicated followers of the
financial news, while others have never heard of the Federal Reserve.
The bank’s customers get their income from a variety of sources. Most have traditional bank accounts.
Some, p
articularly the middle age customers, have substantial holdings of stock. Retired investors also
typically have some sort of pension or retirement plan. The bank’s customers can be very concerned
about changes in the economy. Those holding stock are wor
ried about corporate profitability; the more
profitable the company, the higher the value of the stock. Some of those with pensions have other
concerns. Often, the value of their pensions does not keep up with inflation. These investors tend to
watch fo
r signs of future inflation that could mean they would have a lower real income in the years
ahead.
The growth of GDP seems to be slowing, leading many investors to be concerned about the future
prospects for the economy. One indicator of the weakness of
the economy is the decline in consumer
confidence, a measure of how optimistic consumers are about the strength of the economy in the near
future. If this decline continues, it could lead to a decrease in consumer spending. Also, firms have spent
the la
st two years dramatically expanding their capacity by buying new machinery and building new
factories. Because of this, it is expected that companies are likely to reign in spending on investment
over the next year.
The Economic Research Group of Bank
of Green has provided historical data on GDP along with
forecasted values for the upcoming year (see the spreadsheet on the course website). The forecasts are
based on the information given above, but the forecasts also assume that the Federal Reserve wil
l not
take action.
Copyright 2009
, Dr. James Dow and Dr. Gordon D. Johnson
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve will be meeting in two weeks to
make a decision on monetary policy. The leading issue at that meeting will be the weakness in the
economy. Many of the members of the FOMC
believe that the Federal Reserve should take immediate
action to counter the forecasted decline in the economy.
Required:
Sitting down in your office, coffee in hand, you jot down some questions
you think might come up during
the day’s discussions.
Prepare a report, using the report guidelines from the course website
.
To prepare for this case, you may want to review macroeconomics LDC concepts 1, 5, 6, 7, 8,
and 9; and statistics
concepts 4, 7 and 8.