elizabeth a duke : fostering innovation in community development finance speech by ms elizabeth a duke, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the 2011 exploring innovation conference on community development finance, st louis, missouri, 10 may 2011. * * * good morning. it is a pleasure to be in st. louis to open the third biennial exploring innovation conference. the first exploring innovation conference was opened four years ago by professor andrew hargadon, the charles j. soderquist chair in entrepreneurship at the university of california, davis and a senior fellow at the kauffman foundation. his remarks established a framework of collaboration for innovation in community development finance. since then, this conference has served as a forum for sharing ideas and maintaining the networks that are so critical to this work. professor hargadon initially set the stage by explaining that innovation and creativity are not the same. an individual acting alone to solve a problem can be creative, while innovation is the process of adding value by applying a new idea or method to something that is already established. for example, henry ford did not contribute the creative energy to invent an automobile. rather, ford ’ s innovation was the idea to combine the 100 - year - old technology for the automobile with the meat packing industry ’ s assembly line process, resulting in a means to mass produce cars. on the same note, apple did not invent the mp3 player with the introduction of the ipod. rather, the company used existing technology and a collaboration with the music industry to develop itunes software, bringing an affordable application of the mp3 to the public. in each of these examples, improving upon a good idea was as important, if not more important, than the initial idea. the message for community development professionals was the importance of collaboration, sharing ideas, and building upon the ideas of others in order to innovate for the benefit of our communities. the significance of professor hargadon ’ s message should not be lost in today ’ s challenging economic climate. times are particularly difficult for residents of our low - and moderateincome communities who are struggling more than ever to support their families, obtain affordable housing, and access basic services. we are here this week to develop fresh approaches to address these persistent problems that are even more widespread today than they were four years ago. throughout the conference, i hope you will contribute your own best ideas and look for ways to use the ideas of others to improve your own communities and enhance your innovation network.

ben s bernanke : monitoring the financial system speech by mr ben s bernanke, chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the 49th annual conference on “ bank structure and competition ”, sponsored by the federal reserve bank of chicago, chicago, illinois, 10 may 2013. * * * we are now more than four years beyond the most intense phase of the financial crisis, but its legacy remains. our economy has not yet fully regained the jobs lost in the recession that accompanied the financial near collapse. and our financial system – despite significant healing over the past four years – continues to struggle with the economic, legal, and reputational consequences of the events of 2007 to 2009. the crisis also engendered major shifts in financial regulatory policy and practice. not since the great depression have we seen such extensive changes in financial regulation as those codified in the dodd - frank wall street reform and consumer protection act ( dodd - frank act ) in the united states and, internationally, in the basel iii accord and a range of other initiatives. this new regulatory framework is still under construction, but the federal reserve has already made significant changes to how it conceptualizes and carries out both its regulatory and supervisory role and its responsibility to foster financial stability. in my remarks today i will discuss the federal reserve ’ s efforts in an area that typically gets less attention than the writing and implementation of new rules – namely, our ongoing monitoring of the financial system. of course, the fed has always paid close attention to financial markets, for both regulatory and monetary policy purposes. however, in recent years, we have both greatly increased the resources we devote to monitoring and taken a more systematic and intensive approach, led by our office of financial stability policy and research and drawing on substantial resources from across the federal reserve system. this monitoring informs the policy decisions of both the federal reserve board and the federal open market committee as well as our work with other agencies. the step - up in our monitoring is motivated importantly by a shift in financial regulation and supervision toward a more macroprudential, or systemic, approach, supplementing our traditional microprudential perspective focused primarily on the health of individual institutions and markets. in the spirit of this more systemic approach to oversight, the doddfrank act created the financial stability oversight council ( fsoc ), which is comprised of the heads of a number of federal and state regulatory agencies. the fsoc has fostered greater interaction among financial regulatory agencies as well as