eyes and ears of the fed on wall street, and we supervise many of the largest financial institutions in the country. we operate fedwire® – the conduit for large money transfers between banks. and, we provide banking services to the u. s. treasury, and central banks and governments from around the world. at the regional level, we continually track economic conditions in our district with the help of a number of tools that we have created for this purpose. for example, to fill a void in current measures of economic output, my staff produces indexes of economic activity which approximate output for new york state and new york city on a monthly basis. we also have initiated a consumer credit panel so that we can monitor local credit conditions. and, we have begun a quarterly survey of small business finances to track the issues related to credit and financing for this key job - generating sector. if you are not already part of the survey, i invite you to give your business card to my staff and we will add you to our survey universe, so that it can reflect your views, too. to share the information that we gather and produce about our diverse district, we have created a rich website with very localized current data and maps on conditions in the region. i invite you to visit us on the web to explore the highly detailed information on small business, credit and housing conditions that we provide. finally, and crucially, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, we are working with our colleagues in washington and at other agencies in the united states and abroad to help put the nation ’ s financial system on a firmer footing. as regulators, we have made progress, for instance, in crafting tougher capital rules for the biggest banks, but much remains to be completed and we are determined to keep at it. i recognize fully that there can be no return to pre - crisis business as usual – whether on the part of the financial sector or on the part of regulators like ourselves. we must learn from the economic catastrophe of the past few years so that the financial system is able to perform its essential role in supporting economic activity without being a source of instability for the economy as a whole. all in all, there is a lot to keep my colleagues and me quite busy – even in normal times. national economic conditions now, what is the outlook for and risks to economic activity, employment and inflation in the nation? since the recession ended in 2009, the economy has grown at a relatively modest pace.

william c dudley : road to recovery – hudson valley remarks by mr william c dudley, president and chief executive officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the state university of new york at new paltz, new paltz, new york, 19 may 2011. * * * good morning. i am pleased to be in new paltz to speak to you and meet with the business, community and academic leaders of the hudson valley. i particularly want to thank the ulster county chamber of commerce and community capital resources of the hudson valley, the dutchess county regional chamber of commerce, the dutchess county economic development corporation and the orange county chamber of commerce who assisted us with our recent survey of small business finances. more than 100 businesses responded from the mid - hudson region. the survey results will be published early this summer and, of course, we will share the results with you and post them on our website. each visit to this area gives me a chance to deepen the bank ’ s relationship with the people whom i represent as head of the federal reserve bank of new york. last summer i travelled through central and western new york and met with community leaders, business people, academics, bankers and government officials. on this visit i will also meet with a wide range of people to talk about what we do and to hear first - hand the economic and financial issues important to you in the hudson valley so that i can best represent all my constituents in my work at the fed. i also look forward to walking across that magnificent old railroad bridge, the walkway over the hudson, for the spectacular view that i ’ m told awaits me. i thank the center for research, regional education and outreach for inviting me to speak at suny new paltz today. this morning i will talk about economic conditions in the nation and the region, paying particular attention to how the recession has affected the labor market here. as always, what i have to say reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the federal reserve system or the federal open market committee ( that is, the committee that sets interest rates – also known by its initials as the fomc ). introduction to the new york fed by way of introduction, let me start with a synopsis of what the new york fed is, what we do and what makes my job so interesting. the new york fed is part of the federal reserve system, america ’ s central bank, which was created by congress in 1913. with this act, congress delegate