and businesses at risk of a future storm. while a once - in - a - hundred - year risk of flooding may not appear worrisome, many within this expanded zone may be required to purchase insurance. the expanded flood zones, coupled with federal government efforts to have insurance premiums accurately reflect the risk, could create a serious affordability problem in the years ahead. the new york fed has created maps of community - level flood risk in brooklyn. now i would like to turn my attention to recent developments in the national economy. national economic conditions from the end of the great recession in mid - 2009 through mid - 2013, real gross domestic product, or the aggregate value, after adjusting for inflation, of all the goods and services produced within the borders of the u. s., grew at a rather tepid 2 1 / 4 ; percent annual rate. then, in the second half of 2013, the pace of growth moved notably higher, reaching an annual rate of 3 1 / 4 percent. nonetheless, despite this pickup in the growth pace, the average monthly gains in nonfarm payroll employment were somewhat lower in the second half of the year compared to the first half. at the same time, both total and core inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures ( pce ) deflator, slowed in the second half of 2013 relative to the first half, and the overall pce deflator index is currently running well below the fomc ’ s expressed goal of 2 percent for total inflation. combined with the still - elevated unemployment rate and the drop in the labor force participation rate, these conditions suggest that there continues to be a substantial underutilization of both labor and capital resources. this implies, in turn, that the current, highly - accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time to come. let me elaborate on these points. bis central bankers ’ speeches while the timing and magnitude of the pickup of growth were earlier and somewhat stronger than our internal forecast, in qualitative terms the economy has performed much as we expected. first, by several measures, households ’ balance sheets are in much better shape, and this has led to faster growth of consumer spending, particularly for durable goods. key measures of household leverage have declined and are now near the lowest levels they have been in well over a decade. reflecting rising equity and home prices and declining debt, household net worth relative to disposable income has climbed back to its average

william c dudley : the national and regional economy remarks by mr william c dudley, president and chief executive officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the brooklyn college, brooklyn, new york, 7 march 2014. * * * good afternoon and thank you for inviting me. it is always a pleasure to speak with the different communities that make up our region, and it is especially gratifying to have the opportunity to talk with you, our future leaders. i am especially pleased to be here at brooklyn college, given the relationship that we at the new york fed have developed with the city university of new york ( cuny ). as an example, we collaborated this year on the college fed challenge, our yearly competition where teams of students from area universities take on the roles of the members of the federal open market committee ( fomc ) and debate the appropriate next steps for u. s. monetary policy. a number of cuny schools competed and professors served as judges. also, several cuny schools had a strong showing in our annual savvy credit video festival which i ’ ll speak more about later. my meeting with you today is part of our continuing efforts to understand what is going on at the grassroots level of our economy and to share what we are seeing. at the federal reserve, we try to meet with a diverse array of people in order to get a comprehensive picture of economic conditions in the regions we serve and a fuller understanding of the major issues. earlier today, i met with developers and local community leaders to learn about the redevelopment of the atlantic yards, was welcomed to a roundtable breakfast meeting with members of the brooklyn chamber of commerce and then traveled to brownsville to learn about the challenges faced by that community. following this visit to brooklyn college, i ’ m headed to bush terminal in sunset park to meet with city officials and learn about an important redevelopment project and then i ’ ll end the day at etsy – a successful innovative start - up and a major private - sector employer here in brooklyn. these trips are only one of the many ways in which we seek to engage with the people and businesses in our region. we also reach out to our local communities through web resources, workshops and conferences. to assess the performance of the regional economy, we monitor economic activity on a monthly basis, we tap into the insights of the members of our small business and agriculture advisory council and upstate advisory board, and we have constructed a consumer credit panel that allows us to better understand