![<p>Annual report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 1966 (via <a href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/annual-report-federal-reserve-bank-richmond-471/1966-annual-report-18185">FRASER</a>)</p>](/-/media/images/economic-expansions_720x450.png)
Economic expansions are characterized by growing employment and economic output.
![Front row, L-R: Charles Hamlin, William McAdoo, Frederic Delano. Back row, L-R: Paul Warburg, John Skelton Williams, W.P.G. Harding, A.C. Miller.](/-/media/images/feds_formative_years_1_720x450.jpg)
Fed’s Formative Years
The Fed came into its own in the two decades following the signing of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913
![Federal Reserve Board Chairs Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan.](/-/media/images/great_moderation_1_720x450.jpg)
Great Moderation
This period of relative macroeconomic stability lasted from the mid-1980s to 2007
![Federal Reserve Board Chairman William McChesney Martin, pictured beside President Lyndon Johnson, discusses the Board’s action on raising the discount rate at a December 1965 news conference.](/-/media/images/treasury_fed_accord_to_mid_1960s_720x450.jpg)
After the Accord
The Fed used its newly gained independence to create a new kind of monetary regime