willem f duisenberg : the transformation of the european financial system welcome speech by dr willem f duisenberg, president of the european central bank, at the second ecb central banking conference, 24 - 25 october 2002, frankfurt am main, 24 october 2002. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased to welcome you to frankfurt, to the second ecb central banking conference, entitled " the transformation of the european financial system ". this event is the largest and most important open ecb conference and is held every two years. the first ecb central banking conference took place in november 2000. it focused on price stability, which is the ecb's primary objective, and that of many other central banks worldwide. it was a successful event, and i am convinced that this year's conference will be too. indeed, looking around, i am happy to see that this second conference has evidently aroused much interest and attracted researchers from leading institutions, officials from most of the major central banks, from ministries of finance, various european and international bodies and the media. in view of this year's topic, we also decided to invite representatives from commercial financial institutions and from supervisory authorities. i should like to extend a special welcome to the representatives of the central banks of the countries that are negotiating to join the european union ; these negotiations will hopefully be concluded fairly soon. i should, of course, also like to thank the speakers, discussants, panellists and chairpersons of the sessions. since the early days of the ecb and the first ecb central banking conference, sufficient time has passed for us to assess whether we at the ecb have made an effective contribution to the relationship we have with the academic world. the academics here today should be the first to be asked this question. from our side, i am inclined to say that we have been effective. i am in particular referring to the success of our graduate research and visitors programme. in this context, i should like to announce the establishment of five fellowships for young researchers working in top - priority fields within the financial research network. the executive board has decided to call these fellowships the'lamfalussy fellowships ', in honour of the first president of the european monetary institute ( emi ), who has made an impressive contribution to the process of european monetary and financial integration. another example of successful co - operation and exchanges of information between the academic world and the ecb is the launching of a series of conferences and research networks.

jerome powell : semiannual monetary policy report to the congress testimony by mr jerome h powell, chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, before the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, us senate, washington dc, 17 july 2018. * * * good morning. chairman crapo, ranking member brown, and other members of the committee, i am happy to present the federal reserve ’ s semiannual monetary policy report to the congress. let me start by saying that my colleagues and i strongly support the goals the congress has set for monetary policy — maximum employment and price stability. we also support clear and open communication about the policies we undertake to achieve these goals. we owe you, and the public in general, clear explanations of what we are doing and why we are doing it. monetary policy affects everyone and should be a mystery to no one. for the past three years, we have been gradually returning interest rates and the fed ’ s securities holdings to more normal levels as the economy strengthens. we believe this is the best way we can help set conditions in which americans who want a job can find one, and in which inflation remains low and stable. i will review the current economic situation and outlook and then turn to monetary policy. current economic situation and outlook since i last testified here in february, the job market has continued to strengthen and inflation has moved up. in the most recent data, inflation was a little above 2 percent, the level that the federal open market committee, or fomc, thinks will best achieve our price stability and employment objectives over the longer run. the latest figure was boosted by a significant increase in gasoline and other energy prices. an average of 215, 000 net new jobs were created each month in the first half of this year. that number is somewhat higher than the monthly average for 2017. it is also a good deal higher than the average number of people who enter the work force each month on net. the unemployment rate edged down 0. 1 percentage point over the first half of the year to 4. 0 percent in june, near the lowest level of the past two decades. in addition, the share of the population that either has a job or has looked for one in the past month — the labor force participation rate — has not changed much since late 2013. this development is another sign of labor market strength. part of what has kept the participation rate stable is that more working - age people have started looking for a job,