- Control of Growth & Development. Hormones are chemical messengers produced by glands in the endocrine system. Endocrine tissues are specialised to produce such hormones, which have genes switched on according the the hormones they were designed to produce.
There are actually three rates in the U.S. that drive virtually everything else, from bond returns to credit card interest rates. Of these, the Federal Reserve actually controls only two (the Federal Funds Rate and the Discount Rate). The third rate, called the Prime Rate, is the rate that most people falsely believe the Fed changes. In truth, this is the one rate the Fed has no direct control over.
Loading the player... Changes in interest rates can have both positive and negative effects on the U.S. markets. When the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) changes the rate at which banks borrow money, this has a ripple effect across the entire economy. Below, we will examine how interest rates can have an effect on the economy as a whole, the stock and bond markets, inflation and recessions.