central bank to set those policies without political intervention - - can play a key role in creating an environment conducive to growth. empirical evidence for industrial countries indicates that countries with a higher degree of central bank independence are also generally countries with lower rates of inflation. in emerging markets and transition economies, the evidence of an association between measured central bank independence and inflation rates is not well - established, although a couple of very recent studies do find a negative relationship. to sum up, none of today's recognized fundamental determinants of growth - - openness, institutional infrastructure, and macroeconomic stability - - are recent insights. adam smith and his colleagues proffered them more than two centuries ago. yet assuming that smith's complex insights into what creates the wealth of nations are accurate, why have they been embraced and largely implemented by some societies and not others? as history amply demonstrates, unless a broad majority of a population implicitly or otherwise believes that a competitive free market paradigm advances their welfare, it cannot for long be imposed on them by an authoritarian or even a democratically elected government. fischer ( 1993 ). world bank ( 2002 ) - - gdp per capita ( constant 1995 dollars ). easterly ( 2001 ). easterly and levine ( 1997 ) cited in easterly ( 2001 ). alesina and summers ( 1993 ). gutierrez ( 2002 ) and cukierman, miller, and neyapti ( 2002 ). that an " invisible hand " converts self - centered behavior into a greater good is a profoundly abstract notion that - - while largely, but by no means fully, embraced by developed nations - - has been held only tentatively, even recently, by many developing nations. if not in some sense seen as generally equitable and fair, the distribution of income that emerges from competitive free - market capitalism will not have the support in law that is a necessary condition for markets to produce wealth. now that the central planning paradigm of earlier decades has been largely discarded, the differential rewards of competitive markets based on skill do seem to be accepted though rewards from what is perceived as monopolistic or corrupt are not. it is hence incumbent on those of us who see broader and market - based globalization as fundamental to the creation of wealth to defend and advocate the tenets of adam smith.

lisa d cook : economic outlook speech by ms lisa d cook, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the peterson institute for international economics, washington dc, 6 october 2022. * * * thank you, adam, and thank you to the peterson institute for inviting me to speak today. this is my first speech as a fed governor, and i am delighted to deliver it here, joining friends and colleagues from across my career, from academia to policymaking. 1 i would like to start with a discussion of the u. s. economy, including the implications of international developments, and then talk about my approach as a policymaker and how i view the current stance of monetary policy. the labor market i will begin with the labor market, which is very strong. employment rebounded much more swiftly post - pandemic than it did during previous recoveries and has continued to grow at a rapid pace of about 440, 000 jobs a month so far this year. the unemployment rate, at 3. 7 percent, remains very low. other indicators also point to labor market strength : despite a large drop in the number of job openings in august, which may suggest that labor demand is moderating, there is still an unusually high 1. 7 job openings per unemployed job seeker. meanwhile, layoffs are near historical lows, and the quits rate is well above pre - pandemic levels even as it has moderated somewhat, indicating that workers still feel confident they can find another job. on the supply side, labor force participation has recovered more slowly than expected and has largely moved sideways this year even after a welcome rise to 62. 4 percent in august. early retirements prompted by the pandemic have not yet reversed. some of these are likely due to fear of exposure to covid - 19. and covid continues to weigh on a full recovery in labor supply in other ways as well, as people with long - haul cases and caring responsibilities stay home and others lose hours to short - term illness. if the health impact of covid - 19 continues to diminish, i am optimistic that more workers will reenter the labor force, but there is a risk that labor supply remains below its prepandemic trend. inflation on the price stability side of the fed's mandate, inflation remains stubbornly and unacceptably high, and data over the past few months show that inflationary pressures remain broad based. my focus, therefore, is