funneling savings towards key projects, such as road and telephone networks. in those days, central bank independence was not perceived as a crucial issue. the central bank shared with the government the responsibility for key economic policy decisions, and implemented those decisions using the powers it had on the financial market and on banks. let me recall that in the sixties keynesian thinking became dominant in economics, and the phillips curve oriented decision - making in most countries. stable money had ceased to represent a goal per se, and was often sacrificed in order to achieve a higher rate of employment. monetary stability was essentially being judged in terms of the exchange rate, rather than in terms of consumers'purchasing power. the landscape dramatically changed in the seventies and eighties, with the oil shocks, double - digit inflation rates in several countries, and a renewed emphasis put on the need for central banks'independence. the hypothesis of a new long - term decline from the end of the nineties, the italian economy slowed down markedly. low gdp growth, falling total factor productivity and shrinking export market shares suggested the idea that italy was entering a phase of long - term decline ( slides 6 and 7 ). how come? there is a wide consensus by now, to which research done at the bank of italy gave a significant contribution, that some features of our economic and social structure had become unfit to the new technological paradigm and global trade environment. i am referring first of all to the insufficient dynamics in firm demographics : that is to say, we had – and still have – too many small firms, too few capable and willing to grow. that reduced the general ability of the economy to exploit the potential gains from new technologies and global export markets. the reasons for such a chronic dwarfism of the italian corporate sector were rooted in our peculiar " doing business " ecosystem, characterized by a cobweb of laws and regulations affecting economic activity, sometimes redundant and incoherent, often inspired by an anti - market ideology ; suffocating red tape ; inefficient judiciary. to give you an example, suppose that a successful italian small firm saw the concrete opportunity to make a dimensional jump, either through internal investment or acquiring a competitor : more often than not it just gave up, and stayed as it was. why? because it feared to become too visible to bureaucrats, to tax officials, to unions, to local politicians, to judges. but even when those fears were not justified, the family owners of the firm could decide anyway

market functioning has improved since the strains experienced in march, we have gradually reduced the pace of these purchases. to sustain smooth market functioning and thereby foster the effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions, we will increase our holdings of treasury securities and agency mortgage - backed securities over coming months at least at the current pace. we will closely monitor developments and are prepared to adjust our plans as appropriate to support our goals. to provide stability to the financial system and support the flow of credit to households, businesses, and state and local governments, the federal reserve, with the approval of the secretary of the treasury, established 11 credit and liquidity facilities under section 13 ( 3 ) of the federal reserve act. the june monetary policy report provides details on these facilities, which fall into two categories : stabilizing short - term funding markets and providing more - direct support for credit across the economy. to help stabilize short - term funding markets, the federal reserve set up the commercial paper funding facility and the money market liquidity facility to stem rapid outflows from prime money market funds. the fed also established the primary dealer credit facility, which provides loans against good collateral to primary dealers that are critical intermediaries in short - term funding markets. to more directly support the flow of credit to households, businesses, and state and local governments, the federal reserve established a number of facilities. to support the small business sector, we established the paycheck protection program liquidity facility to bolster the effectiveness of the coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security act ’ s ( cares act ) paycheck protection program. our main street lending program, which we are in the process of launching, supports lending to both small and midsized businesses. the term asset - backed securities loan facility supports lending to both businesses and consumers. to support the employment and spending of investment - grade businesses, we established two corporate credit facilities. and to help u. s. state and local governments manage cash flow pressures and serve their communities, we set up the municipal liquidity facility. the tools that the federal reserve is using under its 13 ( 3 ) authority are appropriately reserved for times of emergency. when this crisis is behind us, we will put them away. the june monetary policy report reviews the implications of these tools for the federal reserve ’ s 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches balance sheet. many of these facilities have been supported by funding from the cares act. we will be disclosing, on a monthly