Does anybody know what The Federal Open Market Committee does?

Does anybody know what the Federal Open Market Commitee does?

• Are they different than the board of governers that run the FRS?

• Answer:

  The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a component of the Federal Reserve System, is charged under United States law with overseeing the nation's open market operations.[1] It is the Federal Reserve Committee that makes key decisions about interest rates and the growth of the United States money supply.[2] It is the principal organ of United States national monetary policy. (Open market operations are the buying and selling of government securities.) The Committee sets monetary policy by specifying the short-term objective for those operations, which is currently a target level for the federal funds rate (the rate that commercial banks charge between themselves for overnight loans). The FOMC also directs operations undertaken by the Federal Reserve System in foreign exchange markets, although any intervention in foreign exchange markets is coordinated with the U.S. Treasury, which has responsibility for formulating U.S. policies regarding the exchange value of the dollar.