don ’ t want to lose sight of that. obviously, to the extent that we – i think it ’ s very – it ’ s way too soon to sort of see how this is going to evolve. it could evolve in the direction where we negotiate hard and we get somewhat better trade deals for the u. s. and trade barriers around the world don ’ t go up very much at all, if at all. that ’ s probably not a bad outcome for the u. s., and i don ’ t think it ’ s a bad outcome for the world. or you could go down the path that was quite a bit more pessimistic than that. so, i think it ’ s just too soon to sort of see which direction. you know, the federal reserve is going to obviously take the world as it is. i mean we – our objectives are set by congress. very clearly, maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability. so we have two goals : employment and inflation. and if the world is a really good place, it maybe makes it a little easier to achieve those goals. and if the world is at a more difficult place, maybe it makes it a little harder to achieve those goals. but it doesn ’ t change our goals, and it doesn ’ t change our monetary policy mission. maureen o ’ hara : let me turn that, our focus, just a tiny bit. you ’ ve been a leading critic of culture in the banking industry, and i kind of have a two - part question here. do you think the era of bad behavior in banking is behind us? and here ’ s the second part of the question : some people would argue that the behavior wasn ’ t really that bad but instead the regulators … president dudley : who are those people? maureen o ’ hara : there was elizabeth warren, i ’ ll say that, i think she ’ s convinced. but some people would argue 6 / 13 bis central bankers'speeches that the regulators used the opportunity to extract excessive fines from banks for behavior that maybe wasn ’ t ideal but wasn ’ t so horrible. there ’ s two different perspectives. i think no matter how we look at it, some of the behavior of the banks was sort of unacceptable. are we past that, do you think? president dudley : well, first thing i would say is a lot of the behavior was just totally egregious, totally unacceptable. not in the gray area. you know

dudley : thank you. audience member : on a similar vein, to what degree do you think that this challenging of facts and these threats about what is truth and, you know, journalistic integrity, to what degree did this affect the financial system and to what degree did this confidence in what the wall street journal might say or the new york times might say as a fact can affect confidence in financial institutions? and what remedies do you have, or does the fed have, to combat that? president dudley : 12 / 13 bis central bankers'speeches i don ’ t think i have any good real answers to that. i ’ ll just have to say that i ’ m fact - based. new york fed is fact - based. and i hope we stay that way. maureen o ’ hara : do you have alternative facts? just checking, just checking. president dudley : look, i think a healthy debate is a good thing about what facts matter and how the world works. you know, people can have different models about how the world works and what ’ s important, and what ’ s not. but i think that they have to be based on real evidence. so, i ’ m going to continue to live in my world, which is very much fact - based. maureen o ’ hara : i think we have time for one more question, and we have someone back there who ’ s got a mike. audience member : yeah, mr. dudley, i have a question. you mentioned that there was some nefarious behavior by banks. i heard you mention that there was some nefarious behavior going on by banks during the financial crisis. president dudley : well, the employees of banks. audience member : ok, employees of banks. my question is, there was – some of the big banks, including j. p. morgan and bank of america, basically bailing out the government and the fdic, buying institutions like countrywide, merrill lynch, washington mutual. in some of these cases, they were given winks and nods by the government that they were not going to be held accountable for let ’ s say the sins of these institutions that they took over. but then what happened, they did this, and then later on, these institutions were fined billions of dollars by the government. and i guess my question is would you call this nefarious behavior on the part of the government to do this to these companies that basically helped out the government and the fdic