currently, decision - making responsibilities are divided among the board of governors, the executive board, and the managing director and staff. but in practice, the division of responsibilities among these groups is not always clearly defined. accountability is dispersed, and decision making lacks transparency. the imf would be more effective if the executive board focused on setting strategic direction, and ensured that policies are sound and that objectives are met, rather than focusing on the day - to - day business of the institution. the managing director would be accountable for the secretariat and surveillance functions and be responsible for policy implementation. this framework would help to clarify that the responsibility for policy formulation rests with the executive board, and that the responsibility for implementation rests with the managing director. towards this end, mervyn king recently suggested establishing a non - resident executive board that meets periodically, rather than almost continuously, and that focuses on strategic direction and oversight. this suggestion certainly merits consideration. we also need to consider how to enhance the vital role of the imfc — the international monetary and financial committee — within the institution. as well, we should think about whether there could be some useful role for various working committees to deal with specific issues as they arise. conclusion ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude. i've argued today that there is a role for the imf in today's global economy. we need an institution to promote a market - based international financial system that d. dodge, " reflections on the international economic and monetary order. " speech to la conference de montreal, montreal, quebec ( 30 may 2005 ). t. macklem, " renewing the imf : some lessons from modern central banking. " speech to the global interdependence center, philadelphia, pennsylvania ( 9 march 2006 ). m. king, op. cit. works efficiently and is stable. this ideal imf would have a sharper focus and a more international aspect to its surveillance, with clear rules governing a greatly reduced lending role. it would also be more representative than the current imf, and would have an overhauled governance structure. the prescription i have outlined today may sound radical. but we cannot afford to be put off by the size of the task. progress may come only over time, but it does need to happen. the first and most important step on the path is to have all players in the global economy agree on the fundamental objective of the imf. as imf members gather next month in washington for the institution's

of other dimensions influence the choice of the data being analyzed : • housing can be owner - occupied or rented. • housing units can be single - family houses or multiple - unit dwellings. • housing is a composite good consisting of both a structure and land. • housing prices can be for existing or new houses, or both. for my purposes today, i ’ ll focus primarily on owner - occupied houses, the total of singles and multiples and the composite price for existing houses measured at the national level. 3 these house price measures are indexes, not levels, rebased from the real house price database of the federal reserve bank of dallas, with the average of each country ’ s index for 2005 representing 100. the charts show house price movements for individual countries relative to their average over the period from 1975 to the first quarter of 2015. because of these multiple dimensions, as well as regional influences within a country, housing and house prices are intrinsically heterogeneous. therefore, price measures are necessarily indexes. the sp / caseshiller city - level indexes of repeated sales control for quality, but their availability is limited to a few jurisdictions. in canada, the equivalent to the case - shiller is the teranet / national bank composite house price index. the bank of canada uses this index and the canadian real estate association mls home price index, as well as the mls average for monitoring purposes. these three price indexes have exhibited the same upward trend. bis central bankers ’ speeches demand factors four broad sets of demand factors have likely contributed to rising real house prices across advanced economies since 1995 : • macroeconomic – rising disposable incomes and lower long - term interest rates ; • demographic – population growth, driven in part by migration, and shifts in age structure and family size ; • credit conditions – broader access to and more efficient funding of mortgage credit due to financial liberalization and innovation ; and • other factors – improvements to the macro - policy framework, international investment, preference shifts and regulatory and tax changes. house prices and income first, let ’ s look at house prices and income. since 1995, house prices in canada and the set of comparable countries have increased faster than nominal personal disposable income ( chart 2a ). 4 during this period, all of these countries experienced solid income growth, with the strongest growth in norway and sweden ( chart 2b ). during the global financial crisis, these countries also experienced house price corrections. this caused the ratios