617-627 reaction

When reading the first few pages I thought I was reading my US American History book from sophmore year. The pages went over how the government began monitoring big business in the form of antitrust policies or "trust busting" which broke up monopolies into smaller businessess that were forced to become more competitive. Examples of these policies include the Interstate Commerce act of1887, the sherman antitrust act, and the Federal Trade Act (1914), which set up the the FTC (watches for price discrimination and pooling agreements). The book then began to focus on what role the government played in shaping the economy, primarily through regulation as seen with the airline industry in the 1970s. The latter half of the reading was a more in depth detail of how the Federal Reserve System Works. Designed to integrate private banks together into one, the system is comprised of 12 reserve banks located in a commercial city.
From a personal standpoint I was a little shocked. While I knew that the government played a role in shaping the economy primarily through trust busting, I did not realize the full impact it could make. The Federal Reserve System I had never quite understood, but after the reading it makes it clear that the system acts as the brakes and gas to slow down or accelerate the economy respectively.