faith in the banking industry and restore the image of bankers as decent, trustworthy and upstanding businessmen. by “ us, ” i mean banks, other companies in the financial industry, and supervisors. regulators can create a proper regulatory framework, set the right incentives and encourage good conduct. however, taking the necessary action – that is, implementing a code of conduct and focusing on ethics and culture in daily corporate life – is the responsibility of each financial company. but how can banks and financial companies achieve this aim? i already stated earlier that ethics and culture are highly personal. individual values and ethical norms are informed by individual life experiences, family and cultural background, the generation one belongs to, and many other things. but nonetheless, it is crucial for companies to find a common basis : a set of values accepted and lived by each individual employee and the company as a whole. this is not a trivial task : in the realm of culture and ethics, there are neither universal “ best practices ”, nor are there metrics by which success can be quantified. it is thus very difficult to develop specific criteria that define the culture of a company. to present an example : at the bundesbank we have introduced six leadership principles, in order bis central bankers ’ speeches to set a good tone from the top. these principles are : recognition, communication skills, responsibility, equal opportunities, judgement and motivation. of course, others may choose different leadership principles, but each entity has to make its own choice. however, these principles, although chosen for a different purpose, of course also influence the bundesbank ’ s corporate culture. “ responsibility ” is a value i would like to discuss with you. what about actions that are not expressly prohibited? does that mean they are permitted? as seneca said : “ shame may restrain what the law does not prohibit ”. so, by which standards do we define what is permitted? i think each bank should try to fulfil its corporate social responsibility. this is a kind of self - regulation by which companies commit to live up to their responsibility towards their stakeholders : their customers, their owners and their staff. of course this is not legally binding, but if a company it should try to meet these expectations and have its customers ’ interests at heart. this should also be in the banks ’ self - interest, because there is a feedback loop between a company and its stakeholders. so if the bank respects its stakeholders, it will generally be rewarded : stakeholders will

decline. labor market now let me turn to the labor market. even as the economy has grown at a solid pace, a wide range of indicators have pointed to a continued normalization in the labor market following the red - hot period in 2021 and 2022. today, most of these measures have moved from the tightest they've been in over two decades to levels more consistent with the good labor market that existed in the period before the pandemic. one measure that understandably gets a lot of attention is the unemployment rate, which has risen by nearly a percentage point from its very low reading in early 2023. still, it remains relatively low by historical standards, and some of this increase reflects 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches a cool - down in the labor market from an overheated state. in addition, the increase in unemployment has occurred in the context of a strong increase in labor supply, rather than from elevated layoffs. to get the full picture of the labor market and what it means for monetary policy, it's important to monitor a wide range of data in addition to the unemployment rate. for example, i take the temperature of the labor market by looking at surveys of both households and businesses ; the rates of quits, hiring, and job vacancies ; and the job - tojob transition rates and flows between unemployment and employment states. taken together, these data indicate that the labor market is now roughly in balance and therefore unlikely to be a source of inflationary pressures going forward. monetary policy what does this mean for monetary policy? in its july statement, the fomc said it " judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals continue to move into better balance ", and that it is " attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate. " 6 regarding the path of policy going forward, the committee said it " will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks " and that it " does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent. " the accumulated evidence has increased my confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent. the current restrictive stance of monetary policy has been effective in restoring balance to the economy and bringing inflation down. with the economy now in equipoise and inflation on a path to 2 percent, it is now appropriate to dial down the degree of restrictiveness