steady flow of accurate information to the public domain. as the public gradually awakens to this topic, a stream of balanced, factually - accurate and timely information can potentially counter the more sensationalist coverage that is surely going to emerge. in addition, it is important for information on year 2000 to be placed in the proper context and in perspective. accurate information from reputable sources will be important in providing that context. finally, public relations experts indicate that public perceptions will firm at some point, and be less subject to revision. since we do not know when that point will occur, it is important for accurate information to be always available. the frequency and volume of the more balanced messages may have to increase as we all get closer to the date change, but information sharing should not wait until the last moment. what has been done? fortunately, those who have spent time over the last several years considering the year 2000 problem are aware of the need for information sharing to maintain business and public confidence. the joint year 2000 council in january 1999 issued a bulletin to the world ’ s financial regulators entitled “ focus on information sharing ”, which called for enhanced disclosure and information sharing and summarized the work of a guidance paper on the same topic. earlier this month we reinforced this message with a short advisory to financial regulators worldwide. the global 2000 co - ordinating group, a committee of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies from throughout the world, provides a tool on their web site for financial institutions to disclose their year 2000 plans and status. global 2000 is a member of the joint council ’ s external consultative committee and we endorse their disclosure efforts. in the united states, the financial regulators have issued guidance to all depository institutions that includes a requirement for them to have public awareness efforts underway to inform their customers of the steps being taken to prepare for the century date change. similarly, regulators have reminded financial institutions that they should understand the degree of preparedness of their major customers. finally, our securities and exchange commission has mandated disclosure from all companies with public shareholders. it is important for us to understand that the information sharing being called for does not require guarantees of complete preparedness. rather, honest disclosure of plans and progress toward completion of those plans is what is called for. what should you do? given what i have said, it is clear that we each have a role to play in this unfolding event. if you represent a national year 2000 authority, as most do, your role is two

. the combination of strong consumer demand and supply constraints has produced very high inflation. the consumer price index ( cpi ) was up 7. 5 percent for the 12 months through january, the highest yearly rate in 40 years. with appropriate monetary policy, and the expected easing in supply constraints, i am hopeful inflation will move down over the course of this year, even with the recent geopolitical developments. nevertheless, the path of inflation is the biggest risk to my outlook. as we move through this year, i can ’ t emphasize enough how much this outlook, and the appropriate stance of monetary policy, will be influenced by the data that we see about the performance of the economy. i know, i know. saying you need to be data dependent is like saying you are for motherhood and apple pie — who would disagree? but in the current situation, it is urgently important to be data dependent. for example, like most people, i expected the omicron surge would hammer job creation in january, but the data showed that this didn ’ t happen. the ups and downs in forecasts during the pandemic should be evidence enough that policy decisions this year, more than ever, will need to be guided by the data, and not by what past experience suggests should happen. 2 missouri, which is home for me, is the show me state, so if you want to know how my outlook will evolve, show me the data. with that in hand, i will evaluate the outlook with respect to the fed ’ s dual mandate in determining the appropriate setting for monetary policy. 1 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches the labor market let ’ s start with where the economy stands with respect to maximum employment. in december, i said that we were “ closing in ” on this objective. 3 since then, the labor market has continued to strengthen. i now believe we have achieved the fomc ’ s objective of maximum employment. so, what has changed and made me more certain about that? a big factor was the jobs report for january, which included very strong data for that month, upward revisions for november and december, and revisions for all of 2021. what we learned from those changes was that a reported slowdown in job creation in the second half of the year never happened, and that in fact job creation was remarkably steady throughout the year, averaging 555, 000 a month and never deviating very far from that trend. these revisions helped explain why we saw such large and steady declines