monetary policy was ultimately needed to stem the high inflation and start the process of getting inflation down to the low and stable levels that were 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the norm until the spring of last year. our aim is to avoid that outcome by acting with resolve now. these lessons are guiding us as we use our tools to bring inflation down. we are taking forceful and rapid steps to moderate demand so that it comes into better alignment with supply, and to keep inflation expectations anchored. we will keep at it until we are confident the job is done. 1 see ben bernanke ( 2004 ), “ the great moderation, ” speech delivered at the meetings of the eastern economic association, washington, february 20 ; ben bernanke ( 2022 ), “ inflation isn ’ t going to bring back the 1970s, " new york times, june 14. 2 see paul a. volcker ( 1979 ), “ statement before the joint economic committee of the u. s. congress, october 17, 1979, " federal reserve bulletin, vol. 65 ( november ), p. 888. 3 a review of the applications of rational inattention in monetary economics appears in christopher a. sims ( 2010 ), “ rational inattention and monetary economics, ” in benjamin m. friedman and michael woodford, eds., handbook of monetary economics, vol. 3 ( amsterdam : north - holland ), pp. 155 – 81. see alan greenspan ( 1989 ), “ statement before the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, u. s. senate, february 21, 1989, " federal reserve bulletin, vol. 75 ( april ), pp. 274 – 75. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

there remains considerable unease among some segments about the way markets distribute that wealth and about the effects of raw competition on the civility of society. thus, should recent positive trends in economic growth falter, it is quite imaginable that support for market - oriented resource allocation will wane and the latent forces of protectionism and state intervention will begin to reassert themselves in many countries, including the united states. for now, the process of globalization is being aided by strengthening economic growth, which is clearly being driven by an accelerating application of new insights. technological innovation, however, arguably comes in bunches as new discoveries feed on one another to push forward innovation until the effects of the initial impetus finally peter out. the vast electrification of our societies and, before that, the spread of the railroads helped elevate economic growth for a considerable period of time. but the pace of growth eventually slowed when full, or near - full, exploitation of the newer technologies was achieved. the most recent wave of technology has engendered a pronounced rise in american rates of return on high - tech investments, which has led to a stepped - up pace of capital deepening and increased productivity growth. indeed, it is still difficult to find credible evidence in the united states that the rate of structural productivity growth has stopped increasing. that is, even after stripping out the significant impact on productivity acceleration of the recent shape of the business cycle, the second derivative of output per hour still appears to be positive. if we knew at what stage of the current technological wave we were in, we could, i assume, confidently project when these elevated rates of change in long - term earnings expectations, productivity growth, and, hence, wealth creation would return to a more historically average pace. for it seems evident that once such a wave begins to crest, much of the self - reinforcing virtuous cycle presumably fades, as it has in the past. in such a scenario, full development of available technological synergies and their competitive deployment would damp the historically high prospective rates of return on capital investment and slow the pace of capital deepening. the level of structural productivity does not recede, of course, since once gained new technological insights are never lost, but its rate of increase would slow, and projections of long - term profits growth presumably regress back to earlier magnitudes. from any perspective, of course, a tapering - off in productivity acceleration is inevitable at some point in the future. in the past