banks, the fed was reluctant to explain its policy decisions or otherwise engage with the public, partly based on a belief that this approach increased the effectiveness of monetary policy. however, this lack of openness became increasingly out of step with other institutions in our democratic society ; it also reduced the effectiveness of fed policies by inhibiting public understanding and discussion of policy goals and strategies. this approach began to change in the 1990s, when the federal reserve began to regularly provide more information about how it saw the economic situation and how it would respond. increasing the fed ’ s transparency, openness, and accountability has been one of my top priorities as chairman. a more open fed, in my view, is both a more effective and more democratically legitimate institution. indeed, the complex challenges we face as a nation are best addressed in an environment of informed public discourse, which is only possible when policy decisions are made in as transparent a way as possible. the centennial may be just an accident of the calendar, but any time is a good time to help more people learn about the fed and what it does to enhance the economic well - being of americans. it is often said – alas, accurately – that teaching is a thankless profession, so let me close by thanking you for what you give to your students. our country and our economy need informed citizens who can think independently and critically. more pertinent to today ’ s meeting, let me also thank you for your interest in teaching your students about the history and role of the federal reserve. as many of you have discovered, the federal reserve has a variety of classroom tools available through our education portal, federalreserveeducation. org. notably, the system ’ s economic and financial education staff is introducing today a set of three lesson plans that examine the past 100 years of central banking. i hope they will provide practical help in your classes. thank you for participating in today ’ s event. i look forward to your questions and to an interesting discussion of the federal reserve ’ s past, present, and future. bis central bankers ’ speeches

’ s actions influence the overall strength and stability of the economy, as you know, but they also affect the cost of a mortgage, the prices of goods and services, and the health of the job market that your students are part of or will soon be entering. economics also complements and enriches the study of history. when i took history classes in high school, we spent much of our time memorizing dates and important events – revolutions, wars, elections, the passage of laws, and so on. while i appreciated the need to be familiar with such milestones, i remember feeling that i would like to know more about the lives of ordinary people at those times, not just about kings and queens and presidents. in college and graduate school, i studied economic history and found what i was looking for. for me, economic history added critical context by zooming in on the conditions of ordinary life – how people earned their livings, what their wages would buy, the extent to which they felt economically secure, the pace of economic change that they faced. appreciating what the lives of ordinary people were like at various times and places helped explain the larger events – the wars, revolutions, and elections – as well. by the same token, understanding history also requires an appreciation of the role of key economic institutions, including central banks like the federal reserve. when i was in graduate school, my teacher, stanley fischer, introduced me to the work of milton friedman and anna schwartz, which demonstrated that monetary policy can have enormous effects on bis central bankers ’ speeches how the economy performs, for good or for ill. that realization helped motivate me to specialize, in graduate school and after, in monetary economics and related fields. similarly, for your students, it ’ s impossible to understand the great depression, america ’ s strong economic performance after world war ii, or the recent financial crisis without learning about the federal reserve and the debates that have surrounded it. learning about the federal reserve and about economics more generally will help students in their daily lives, by helping them make better financial or career decisions, for example, and by helping them become more informed citizens and voters. learning about the federal reserve and its economic context will also give students a deeper understanding of history, as i noted. yet there is one more reason why we at the fed hope to use this centennial as an educational opportunity – to maintain and strengthen the democratic accountability and effectiveness of this institution. traditionally, like other central