the seattle region. let me conclude by reiterating my great pleasure in participating in this ceremony, which underscores our commitment to serve the growing needs of the seattle and greater northwest communities. i appreciate the opportunity you've provided me to speak about our central bank roles and functions and our strong links with the local economic community. i am confident that this building will enable us to continue to meet our own mission objectives and serve as an integral member of the community for many years to come. i congratulate branch staff and the community for their roles in ushering in this outstanding facility.

rodrigo vergara : macroeconomic and financial stability – challenges for monetary policy opening remarks by mr rodrigo vergara, governor of the central bank of chile, at the xvi annual conference on “ central banking, analysis and economic policies ” of the central bank of chile, santiago de chile, 15 november 2012. * * * i thank sofia bauducco, gonzalo castex, maria consuelo edwards, luis oscar herrera, kevin cowan, and claudio raddatz for helpful comments. good morning. welcome to the central bank of chile ’ s sixteenth annual conference on central banking, analysis and economic policies. this year ’ s version is about “ macroeconomic and financial stability : challenges for monetary policy. ” we are expecting two exciting days of learning and discussion on topics at the forefront of academic and policy research on macroeconomic and financial stability. the interaction between academics and policy makers fostered by this conference provides an important opportunity to learn from each other and share views and experiences that will help us improve our policy decisions and hopefully go home with new ideas for research. today and tomorrow we will reflect on the role of central banks in preventing and reacting to financial exuberance and financial crises. the discussion will focus on two important policy questions : first, did the conduct of conventional monetary policy before the crisis contribute to shaping it? and second, how should monetary policy react to a crisis? in particular, we will discuss the efficacy of conventional monetary and macro - prudential policy action in ameliorating the effects of financial crises. with these two questions in mind, we will also explore the consequences of financial crises on unemployment, household credit, and the real economy, and will try to understand how markets operate in environments with multidimensional private information. our last session will be devoted to analyzing the effects of unconventional policies in dealing with the impact of the recent financial crisis in chile. i am confident that valuable lessons will come out of these two days of discussion. to begin, i would like to share my views and chile ’ s experience in four issues that are currently in the policy debate and that will underlie the discussion we will be having over the next two days. the first issue relates to the debate on financial stability as a macro policy goal and which institutions should be responsible for it. i will then turn to the availability and usefulness of policy instruments to pursue financial stability. i will also refer to two aspects of our experience in conducting monetary policy during financial crises : our