Review

Since November 1, 1978, commercial banks have been permitted to offer a new type of individual savings account from which funds are transferred automatically into a checking account. This automatic transfer service (ATS) enables individual customers to earn interest on funds which previously would have been held in their checking accounts. The use of these new ATS accounts affects the payments system and the money supply process.

At the beginning of 1978, Carter Administration policymakers, focusing upon the prospect of a slower rate of economic growth for the upcoming year, proposed several steps they hoped would insure that the economy’s growth would continue at a satisfactory rate. 

The 1979 forecast of U.S. food and agricultural developments by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) points to larger food supplies and a slower rate of food price increases than last year.