to many as the dual mandate. it directs the federal reserve “ to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate longterm interest rates. ” 3 while there are actually three discrete objectives in the dual mandate, most economists would say that moderate long - term interest rates are a tool to produce maximum employment and price stability. such economic reasoning also involves some clever and simple arithmetic – it reduces a tripartite mandate to a dual mandate. with respect to financial stability, leading economic thinkers would now say, and the financial crisis seems to offer us the perfect illustration, that price stability and maximum employment are possible only in a context of financial stability. this is an implicit part of what chairman bernanke was communicating at the national press club – until financial stability could be restored, the ability to achieve the goals of maximum employment and price stability through the monetary transmission mechanism were beyond the federal reserve ’ s reach. accordingly, the federal reserve used its monetary policy tools to lower the targeted fed funds rate to zero. in addition, the federal reserve used its lender of last resort authorities in new and creative ways to restore financial stability to the u. s. economy. when the crisis in the united states abated in late 2009, following the successful introduction of stress testing, the federal reserve began to speak about terminating some of its emergency facilities. these facilities had been introduced during the “ whatever it takes ” era, and when the federal reserve was executing the delicate task of winding these facilities down, the federal open market committee ( fomc ) made clear that financial stability remained a key objective. for example, the committee said in its release of december 16, 2009 that “ [ t ] he federal reserve is prepared to modify these [ wind down ] plans if necessary to support financial stability and economic growth. ” 4 the legal basis for deriving implied powers from the penumbra of other express powers is best seen in justice douglas classic opinion in griswold v. connecticut. 5 in the griswold case, the united states supreme court struck down a connecticut law prohibiting the use of contraception. justice douglas ’ opinion struck that law down as inconsistent with a constitutional right of privacy, notwithstanding that the u. s. constitution nowhere mentions any such right, let alone even using the word “ privacy ”. justice douglas noted that individual privacy concerns were protected by a series of express constitutional provisions, like the third amendment ’ s prohibition on quartering soldiers during peacetime, the fourth

the outlook for the non - commodity exporters remains bright, with growth rates of more than 6 percent in countries such as cote d ’ ivoire, ethiopia, kenya, and senegal. the other development that altered many people ’ s view of africa, were the political and security - related improvements. while africa is, unfortunately, still the continent where most conflicts take place, the absolute number of conflicts in africa has declined over the past 25 years. many of the wars of the 1990s have ended, and despite some ongoing and intensifying conflicts in north africa and the middle east, overall africa nowadays seems to be more peaceful than in the early 1990s. moreover, since the start of this millennium democratic governance has improved and institutional reforms have taken place in many countries, be it from a low level. at the same time, business environments have taken a turn for the better. while the starting point was perhaps less than auspicious, it is very encouraging to see that african countries as benin and senegal nowadays often appear among the global top 10 reformers in the world bank ’ s “ ease of doing business ” indicators. due to these promising developments, africa has become a region that boasts strong business opportunities, both for african entrepreneurs and for foreign ones. also dutch firms are increasingly aware of these opportunities. for instance, nowadays more than 2, 000 dutch firms are doing business in africa, ranging from smaller – mainly trade - oriented – companies to major dutch companies such as heineken, unilever and philips. africa is also increasingly important for dutch exports and imports. among the 20 most important emerging countries to which dutch exports are destined, 9 are situated in africa, with togo, ghana and senegal even in the top 5. and, according to statistics netherlands, about 70 percent of our imported roses come from africa, where, by the way, also dutch rose growers are active. certainly, africa works for dutch entrepreneurs! the second reason why i am delighted to be here is the theme of the conference : innovation in finance. in my view, this is a very well - chosen topic. new technologies are changing our lives and our industries. also finance is undergoing a rapid transformation, most visibly in the field of payment transfers, but also in lending, insurance and, importantly, remittances. the advent of smart phones, for instance, has led to the development of new mobile wallets, which makes it easy to “ send money home ” : goodbye long unsafe travels, hello smart phones