alternative sources of funds became available. this news raised difficult questions of public policy. normally, the market sorts out which companies survive and which fail, and that is as it should be. however, the issues raised here extended well beyond the fate of one company. our financial system is extremely complex and interconnected, and bear stearns participated extensively in a range of critical markets. with financial conditions fragile, the sudden failure of bear stearns likely would have led to a chaotic unwinding of positions in those markets and could have severely shaken confidence. the company ’ s failure could also have cast doubt on the financial positions of some of bear stearns ’ thousands of counterparties and perhaps of companies with similar businesses. given the current exceptional pressures on the global economy and financial system, the damage caused by a default by bear stearns could have been severe and extremely difficult to contain. moreover, the adverse effects would not have been confined to the financial system but would have been felt broadly in the real economy through its effects on asset values and credit availability. to prevent a disorderly failure of bear stearns and the unpredictable but likely severe consequences of such a failure for market functioning and the broader economy, the federal reserve, in close consultation with the treasury department, agreed to provide funding to bear stearns through jpmorgan chase. over the following weekend, jpmorgan chase agreed to purchase bear stearns and assumed bear ’ s financial obligations. the federal reserve has taken additional measures to improve market liquidity. we have initiated a series of twenty - eight - day single - tranche term repurchase transactions with primary dealers, expected to cumulate to $ 100 billion outstanding, in which dealers may offer any of the types of collateral that are eligible for conventional open market operations. we have also expanded and extended reciprocal currency arrangements ( “ swap lines ” ) with the european central bank and the swiss national bank. using these swap lines, the participating central banks are providing dollar liquidity to financial institutions in their jurisdictions, which should improve the functioning of the global market for dollar funding. these facilities and programs will be kept in place as long as conditions warrant their ongoing use. we are working closely with the securities exchange commission to monitor the financial conditions and funding positions of primary dealers who might seek federal reserve credit. to date, the recent liquidity measures implemented by the federal reserve seem to have been helpful in addressing some of the strains in financial markets. funding pressures on primary dealers appear to have eased somewhat, and liquid

jean - pierre roth : snb commemorative publication “ the swiss national bank 1907 - 2007 ” remarks by mr jean - pierre roth, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at the launch of the commemorative publication “ the swiss national bank 1907 – 2007 ”, zurich, 21 june 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen it is with pleasure and some pride that i present our commemorative publication today or – as the german language puts it so well – our festschrift, or celebratory work. there is indeed good reason to celebrate. one hundred years of doing business, crowned for the most part with success, certainly warrants celebration. the publication of a festschrift is one of the events being held to mark this anniversary. it is the fourth such work to be published, following on from those of 1932, 1957 and 1982. it is somewhat different, however, insofar as it commemorates an entire century of the national bank ’ s existence. we wanted this commemorative publication to be a learned work, which at the same time is accessible to a very broad readership. we wanted it to be both unpretentious and modern, yet in keeping with the tradition of the previous works. i make no secret of the fact that significant resources were deployed to prepare the book. work first started over three years ago and some fifty or so bank employees were involved in the project. the work which i am presenting to you today is divided into three sections. the first tells the history of the snb over the first seventy - five years of its existence. as the previous commemorative publications have already dealt in detail with this period, it was no longer necessary to recount all the events again. we thought that it would be more interesting to take a fresh and critical look at certain episodes from a historical perspective. this is why we called upon the services of three distinguished economists and historians, asking them to explore this period, and leaving them free to choose the salient points of their analysis. michael bordo of rutgers university and harold james of princeton university took a detailed look into the first half - century of the snb, in other words, from its jean - pierre roth snb founding in 1907 to the end of the second world war. an exciting yet troubled time, which included the surge in inflation that came in the aftermath of the first world war, the laborious return to the gold standard, the 1936