souls, vol. 18 ( 1 ), p. 85 - 4opportunity, with full employment prominent on the list of demands. that march was an extension of the 1963 march on washington for jobs and freedom, which was commemorated this year for its 60th anniversary. in the following years, mrs. king used her considerable and growing stature to advocate for a broad agenda of economic empowerment, centered around the maximum - employment guarantee that had been law for decades. in 1973, the united states was hit with runaway inflation, this time accompanied by what became a deep recession — stagflation. in 1974, mrs. king joined with elements of the labor movement to create the national committee for full employment / full employment action council. she testified and walked the halls of congress, doing just the kind of arm - twisting and coalition - building that louis martin was known for. that work culminated in 1975, with early versions of what would become the full employment and balanced growth act of 1978, also known as the humphrey - hawkins act. in general terms, the law set economic priorities for the federal government centered on promoting good - paying jobs for all americans. humphreyhawkins established the objectives of maximum employment, stable prices, a balanced budget, and a balance of foreign trade, and it defined them by setting numerical goals. coretta scott king testified in favor of the legislation and its mandate of maximum employment. in practice, across the government, the numerical targets and goals in the humphrey - hawkins act were not treated as legally binding. but one of humphreyhawkins ’ undeniable legacies is how, as it headed toward likely passage, its employment and inflation objectives were enshrined in the 1977 amendments to the federal reserve act, establishing the dual mandate of maximum employment and stable prices. - 5this began a process in which the federal reserve increasingly tied its policy decisions to statutory goals. starting in 1979, the federal reserve board published the monetary policy report, as required by humphrey - hawkins, and, along with the report ’ s release, the chair regularly gave testimony on the committee ’ s plans. in 1979, inflation remained a big challenge, and a lasting period of price stability did not return until the 1990s. in 2007, the fomc began publishing a summary of the economic projections of its participants, including the range of estimates of the longer - run unemployment rate, an indication of their views of maximum employment. subsequently, the fomc responded forcefully to the deep recession caused by

target, a flexible exchange rate and a debt to gross domestic product ( gdp ) ratio that trends downward to sixty percent. we no longer have conceptual frameworks for economic management for very small economies. that is the market that we at central bank of barbados are well positioned to claim as our own. we are already out of the boxes. we have a framework for anchoring our exchange rate by the use of fiscal policy to contain aggregate spending and imports. it is, as far as i know, unique in the world. other countries are doing what we do, and like us have kept up the value of their currencies. but they are doing it instinctively, often because they have vast natural resources and small populations. we are the only ones who have a theory and a way to know when we must adjust and by how much. and this is just the beginning. we are working on a tool to measure whether our fiscal policies are sustainable, building on the work we did with colleagues across the region, in the book we published last year. from this work we may derive fiscal rules that make sense for small open economies that are credible and can be implemented. also ongoing is analysis of investment and the current account of the balance of payments ( bop ), intended to demonstrate that the conventional indicators may give misleading signals. bis central bankers ’ speeches beyond this, we must venture out into the fields of competition and competition policy, financial stability analysis, finance and development, and payments, to name a random few, in search of policies and guidelines that are appropriate for small very open economies. i say this is a golden opportunity for us at cbb to take ownership of policy design for economies like our own, worldwide. nobody else is doing this work. this can become our trademark, and when it does, we will attract talent from around the world to the ars, people with an interest in economic and financial management of svoes. that is the promise of our future. we will go forward in concert with colleagues from across the region. our research agenda will be reflected in the other conferences hosted in the region, and in the research that is undertaken in our universities and reflected in our journals. we have the potential to be a fount of ideas that can spread across the world, because we are coming up with policies that work. we have every reason to look forward to the discussion and debate of the next few days. at the end of our sessions i am confident we would all have gained insight, and