and the press, for the freedom of religion and labour, and for the freedom of trade and industry. democracy, equality and respect for human rights were, for him, the only way towards progress and the pursuit of happiness for the entire society. that was ten years before patrick henry and the declaration of independence of the thirteen colonies. those enlightenment values, which still underpin our economic and political models on both sides of the atlantic, are now being challenged both politically and socially, from inside and outside. politically, a populist and nationalist agenda appears tempting to many people. socially, the values of tolerance, liberalism and inclusion are increasingly under threat. to my mind, it is a common challenge for both of us, as americans and europeans, to defend the values of liberty and democracy, and the rule of law and rules - based world order. on this side of the pond, we realize the urgency of this effort, especially now as the role of europe as the standard - bearer for liberal democracy has become even more crucial. as the international system is built not only on rules and institutions, but also on trust and confidence, current policy uncertainty and the erosion of international cooperation are damaging to everyone. we need bolder joint efforts to steer the global economy towards a more sustainable future. in europe we want to keep the flame of global multilateralism alive. i hope our american friends will rejoin us and stay on board. many thanks for your attention, and enjoy the evening and stockholm. anticipating the wealth of nations : the selected works of anders chydenius ( 1729 – 1803 ) : edited by maren jonasson and pertti hyttinen with an introduction by lars magnusson, routledge studies in the history of economics, 2012. the federal reserve board has coined three questions : 1. “ can the federal reserve best meet its statutory objectives with its existing monetary policy strategy, or should it consider strategies that aim to reverse past misses of the inflation objective? " ; 2. “ are the existing monetary policy tools adequate to achieve and maintain maximum employment and price stability, or should the toolkit be expanded?, and 3. “ how can the fomc ’ s communication of its policy framework and implementation be improved? ". 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches

, global economic activity slowed down, which has been felt also 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches in the euro area. prevailing uncertainty, which stems from the us - china trade tensions, slowdown of growth in china and europe ’ s internal problems, has weakened the outlook for the economy. growth forecasts for this year have globally been revised downwards. incoming data, however, is moving sideways. some very recent indicators hint at stabilization – i am referring to last week ’ s growth figures for the united states that were rather strong, and to this week ’ s eurostat flash estimate that the eurozone gdp growth in the first quarter of this year accelerated to 0. 4 percent, up from 0. 2 in the last quarter of 2018. this is good news, of course. but in my view we should not jump the gun after the first green shoots and change the course. in policy - making, it is often better to be safe than sorry. this goes certainly for monetary policy. as a consequence of the slowdown, ( almost ) all major central banks needed to put monetary policy normalisation on hold and instead maintain an accommodative policy stance. this holds true for the ecb as well. the ecb governing council is maintaining an ample degree of monetary accommodation through our forward guidance on the key ecb interest rates, reinvestments of a sizable stock of acquired assets, and the new series of targeted long - term refinancing operations. moreover, as president mario draghi has said, the governing council stands ready to adjust all of its instruments, as appropriate, so that inflation converges with our aim of below but close to 2 % in a sustained manner. it is worth noting that our inflation aim does not imply a ceiling at 2 %, since inflation can deviate from our target in both directions. before concluding, let me say a word on the longer term. the ecb – much like other central banks – operates in an environment where long run trends, such as population aging and lower long - term interest rates, as well as concerns about inequality and climate change can have important societal effects. the central banking community needs to understand better the implications of these structural changes for growth, employment and inflation dynamics, so as to deliver more effectively on their mandate. that ’ s why it is important to assess systematically how these transformations affect our longerterm monetary policy strategy. many central banks are reviewing their monetary policy strategy and some do it regularly. for