Making good decisions in the face of these changes requires a higher level of financial and economic literacy than our schools typically equip people with. Third, in a world where the returns to quality education have gone up substantially (and the penalty for inadequate skills also) we have not done as well as we could in ensuring that Americans have the opportunity to take advantage of the best education this country offers, opportunity that is based on talent, not on the economic fortune of one’s parents. And finally, the prospect for building a political base for confronting our fiscal challenges requires that Americans expect more from their politicians, and raising the overall quality of education is probably an important part of getting better policy results in a democracy. Let me end by noting that by many measures the immediate economic landscape looks reasonably favorable. The U.S. expansion has proven quite resilient. We enter the new year with what appears to be a pretty solid underlying pace of growth. Core inflation is moderate, and various measures of inflation expectations suggest confidence in the outlook for price stability. Estimates of structural productivity growth remains high, although there has been some moderation recently. The pace of global growth has moderated a bit, but most forecasts anticipate a quite strong and broad-based expansion. The IMF’s projection is just over four percent for real global GDP growth.

8  Joint Council for Qualifications, 2017 GCSE and A-Level results, available at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/examinationresults/gcses/2017/gcse-full-course-results-summer-2017/gcse-full-course-results-summer-2017. 9 HE student enrolments by subject of study 2016/17 available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-9. 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  4  Once the right people are through the door they need to be developed and the culture needs to be supportive. For the Bank that means identifying a pipeline of future leaders with a diverse and broad set of experiences and pushing them in order to prepare themselves for bigger roles. Last year for internal appointments, the Bank introduced pooled (or co-ordinated) recruitment for senior appointments. Governors and Executive Directors come together to assess the roles available with the candidates that have applied to try and find the best fit for each team, and for the institution as a whole. This allows us to take a birds-eye view of diversity, rather than appointing in isolation, which risks reinforcing homogeneity in our senior appointments. Pooling our appointments makes everyone realise how their decision impacts the diversity of the whole organisation and helps to highlight the characteristics and skills that may be missing or overrepresented in the senior leadership. And it provides real time feedback if someone’s career is being held back by gaps in their experience or training. Pooled recruitment catalyses the creation of essential development plans that prepare colleagues for future roles. Since its inception, over half of the 15 promotions to Head of Division level between May 2018 and February 2019 using this pooled recruitment were women.