. he was raised with a strong sense of right and wrong and was heavily influenced by the philosopher john stuart mill to believe that ethical behavior was also an eminently practical approach to life. as a college professor, he entered public life in chicago in the 1920s somewhat reluctantly to fight the spectacular political and commercial corruption that was strangling the city. once elected to office, he faced the challenge of how to act ethically when corruption was so universal that the city ’ s aldermen were expected to funnel large sums to their constituents, based on the presumption that all politicians were “ on the take. ” if he refused bribes and then had no money to hand out, how would he convince people that he wasn ’ t simply refusing to share? the key was transparency and communication. everyone who asked for a large payment was handed a mimeographed statement titled “ please help me to be an honest alderman. ” at first, the public, inured to corruption, either disbelieved him or thought him a sucker for refusing to take bribes. but over time, douglas ’ s stand changed both the demands made by supplicants and his constituents ’ expectations for ethical behavior by a government official. similarly, in 1939, paul douglas was one of the first public officials in america to publish a full 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches accounting of his personal finances. in his memoir, douglas admits that this and other ethical rules he imposed on himself were often a nuisance and, in some cases, probably went further than needed to demonstrate his honesty. but he believed that the public ’ s trust was so fundamental to the effectiveness of government that such steps were appropriate. as a senator, he continued to publish his finances and observed strict limits on the value of personal gifts he received from those seeking benefits from him as a public official. he strongly believed that these gift limits also made him more effective as a public servant, and he campaigned for legislation that ultimately led to the widespread requirement of financial disclosure and limits on accepting gifts. i share paul douglas ’ s view that behaving ethically is both the right thing to do and, in practical terms, helps maintain the trust the public places in those who act on its behalf. the federal reserve ’ s very effectiveness in setting monetary policy depends on the public ’ s assured confidence that we act only in its interest. we must act ethically, and we must demonstrate our ethical standards in ways that leave little room for doubt.

fed watcher until september 17, 2018. it has also been the inference of some private - sector forecasters as well as some other fomc participants. for example, see janet l. yellen ( 2017 ), “ the economic outlook and the conduct of monetary policy, ” speech delivered at the stanford institute for economic policy research, stanford university, stanford, calif., january 19, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / speech / yellen20170119a. htm. - 8stressed, r * and u * are uncertain, and i believe we should continue to update our estimates of them as new data arrive. this process of learning about r * and u * as new data arrive supports the case for gradual policy normalization, as it will allow the fed to accumulate more information from the data about the ultimate destination for the policy rate and the unemployment rate at a time when inflation is close to our 2 percent objective.