in particular on june 20 and 21 our market intelligence and analysis of data suggest that lcr - motivated borrowing from fhlbs by a few banks placed modest upward pressure on traded rates in the federal funds market. a contributing factor was a decline in funds supplied into the market from the fhlbs, due to an increase in demand for advances around the mid - month tax date. data on historical traded rates in the eurodollar market are published with a quarterly lag as part of the new york fed ’ s quarterly fr 2420 summary statistics release. indeed, an alternative explanation for the movement of federal funds trading further up in the range since lift - off could be fhlbs gaining more bargaining power with banks as they observe counterparties being willing to trade at higher rates. a good example of this was in december 2014 when temporary testing of different offering rates on the on rrp produced a persistent increase in the level of federal funds trading. the end of the year. others see the recent tightening of federal funds to ior as overly large relative to historical experience, and think this will retrace somewhat. based on what i know now, it seems like a strong possibility that rates paid on borrowing in the federal funds market will remain within the target range for now with the current settings of the federal reserve ’ s monetary policy toolkit. but, more importantly, i am confident that the federal reserve has the capacity to ensure that it will continue to achieve its goals, such as through another technical adjustment, should such action seem appropriate. what matters to the public and for broad financial conditions is the effective stance of monetary policy, which at the federal reserve is communicated by the target federal funds range and its transmission to other money markets. fluctuations in term money markets let ’ s shift gears and talk about term dollar money markets. as i just discussed, the federal reserve ’ s policy target is the federal funds rate, which is an overnight rate of interest in the wholesale market. while the goals for monetary policy are maximum employment and price stability, the economic decisions of households and firms generally don ’ t depend directly on the federal funds rate, since these parties do not participate in that market. instead, their decisions depend on broader financial conditions, including the interest rates on home mortgages and corporate bonds, the performance of the stock market, and the foreign - exchange value of the dollar. as a result, for monetary policy to achieve its objectives, markets must function well enough to transmit the stance of policy,

state one of the particular strengths of new york state is its diversity — and this is especially true from an economic perspective. in western and central new york there are top - tier universities, manufacturing businesses, a thriving professional services industry, as well as popular tourist destinations. since the 2008 financial crisis, the declining population trend in upstate new york of earlier decades had largely stabilized. in recent years, new businesses had sprung up and unemployment had fallen to historic lows. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches all of this was against the backdrop of a strong national economy. at the start of the year, most forecasts anticipated continued moderate growth throughout 2020 and into 2021. according to the data for april, the unemployment rate now stands at a staggering 14. 7 percent — a figure i hoped that i would never see in my lifetime, and one that is sure to get worse before it gets better. if i think back to the economic picture of february, nobody could foresee this would be our reality within a few short months. it ’ s likely that the latest numbers do not reveal the full extent of the financial devastation faced by millions of american families. the data don ’ t capture those who had to leave their jobs, either for their own health or to take care of loved ones. many more people have had their hours reduced or have been forced to take a pay cut. it ’ s going to be some time before we have a detailed understanding of the full economic effects of the public health measures necessary to combat the coronavirus. what we do know is that the pandemic has put a large question mark over the positive trends experienced in our state, as well as the nation as a whole. as social distancing measures are relaxed, we will get a better understanding of how different industries are affected. we know that travel, hospitality, and retail have all been hard hit. what we don ’ t know is what the shape or timescale of the recovery will be. it ’ s going to be some time before we have a clearer view of the effects on other industries, including autos, higher education, manufacturing, and professional services. our response despite this extraordinary uncertainty, at the federal reserve we worked quickly to put measures in place to support the economy and set the foundation for a strong recovery. during the first half of march, the federal open market committee ( fomc ) brought the target range for the federal funds rate to near zero. 1 the fomc has indicated