to disparities based on the community where a family lives and significant and persistent racial disparities, i have been struck while traveling around the country by the widening gulf between the economic fortunes of our large metropolitan areas and those of our small cities, towns, and rural areas. the statistics bear this out : the convergence in income across regions of the country has slowed dramatically over recent decades. 3 much of the gains in employment, income, and wealth since the end of the recession — and more broadly over the past few decades — have accrued to workers and families in larger cities. if some workers and families find it difficult to move, this concentration of economic opportunities in larger cities may have adverse implications for the well - being of these households and, potentially, the economy overall. in my visits, i have also been heartened by the efforts of local partners to address these disparities and improve their communities, including those aimed at capitalizing on local foodbased assets to advance economic opportunity and address food insecurity. for instance, in el paso, i visited with several vibrant community organizations that were running community gardens, local nutrition and farming educational outreach programs, a commercial kitchen, and a food pantry to improve nutrition and access to fresh food in an area that lacked full - scale grocery stores. in the mississippi delta, i met with people involved in an interesting collaboration between a local entrepreneur, a community development financial institution, the engineering department of a local community college, local farmers, and local food organizations — the aim of which was to produce biofuels from food waste. of course, pockets of both opportunity and persistent poverty are found in large metro and rural areas alike. in fact, a recent report found boston to have one of the highest rates of income inequality among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the united states, despite the overall strength of boston ’ s economy. 4 findings like this remind us that not all communities are well 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches positioned to access the opportunities available in the economy, even those in their own backyard. our research suggests there are things that can be done to improve the likelihood that an area will be a community of opportunity. some localities have fared better than others in this respect, and their successes can provide us with actionable lessons. for instance, the federal reserve bank of boston undertook an in - depth study of 25 medium - sized cities nationwide that had experienced a post - industrial decline and identified 10 that experienced an economic resurgence. the

crisis and the decline of interest rates to very low levels, foreign exchange market intervention has page 4 / 9 become an important tool in the implementation of the snb ’ s monetary policy. it is thus vital that we closely monitor structural and technological developments on this fast - paced market, and ensure that both our resources and our skillset are up to speed. in so doing, we stay on level pegging with market participants and optimise the desired effect when we intervene in the market. a thorough analysis of the market allows us to achieve the best possible trading conditions. i would now like to hand over to my colleague thomas moser. he will explain in greater depth how the snb performs real - time monitoring of this fast - paced market. i would like to show you in more detail how the snb uses high - frequency data to monitor the foreign exchange market in real time. we first had to refine our tools and skillset to keep pace with high - speed markets. the fragmentation of trading activity has caused a huge increase in the volume of data that needs to be collected, recorded and processed. to perform this task, we have invested in internal resources, especially for the analysis of high - frequency data. this gives us a better understanding of the microstructure of the markets that we use to implement our monetary policy. 6 let me give you a concrete example of such an analysis. on 8 february 2018, the swiss franc appreciated significantly against the euro in a matter of minutes. chart 2 shows the limit order book for eurchf on the interbank market between 17 : 00 and 17 : 45. the red bars represent the bid volume, and the blue bars the ask volume. the triangles denote the transactions carried out at the bid price ( in red ) and ask price ( in blue ), respectively. for each tick, the system records the volume on the bid and ask sides. the dark colours indicate more volume for a given price level. we can see that prior to 17 : 15, there was a liquid order book on both sides. thereafter, a large number of eur sell orders were executed ; this was accompanied by a drop in bid volume and a downward revision of bid and ask prices. price levels with high volume – as denoted by the darker red bars on the bid side – steadily declined to end up at chf 1. 1448 per euro. after this short - lived episode, the euro gradually recovered in the minutes that followed. now let