william c dudley : “ us economy in a snapshot ” opening remarks by mr william c dudley, president and chief executive officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the economic press briefing on the us economy in a snapshot, federal reserve bank of new york, new york city, 19 may 2016. * * * jonathan mccarthy, paolo pesenti, robert rich and joseph tracy assisted in preparing these remarks. welcome to our economic press briefing. today we are going to introduce you to a data product that we have been making available to the public, u. s. economy in a snapshot. my role is to put this product in the broader context of the federal open market committee ’ s ( fomc ) communication strategy about the economy and policy. my colleague robert rich will then walk you through the structure of the product and discuss excerpts from the may release. as always, what i have to say reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the federal open market committee or the federal reserve system. conventional u. s. monetary policy is conducted by targeting the level of the federal funds rate — an overnight interest rate on bank reserves. few participants in our economy have any direct interaction with this interest rate. how, then, is controlling this interest rate such an important part of setting monetary policy and steering an 18 trillion dollar economy toward the federal reserve ’ s dual mandate objectives of maximum sustainable employment and price stability? this is the remarkable aspect of monetary policy. just as a pebble dropped into a lake disturbs the water not just at the point of impact but ripples outward far from the origin, changes in the federal funds rate influence the prices of financial assets more broadly and this, in turn, affects the broader economy. an important insight of modern monetary theory is that this transmission of monetary policy to the broader economy through its many channels works best when the central bank is transparent about its goals, policy strategy and approach to implementing its strategy. in this case, market participants and households both understand and can anticipate actions by the central bank. by doing so, the transmission channels of monetary policy are enhanced. this places considerable importance on effective central bank communication. recognizing this, the fomc has undertaken many initiatives over the years to improve its communications with the public. these include providing clarification in terms of the goals of monetary policy, discussions of the fomc ’ s broad policy strategy, as well as fomc participants ’ ongoing explanations of their views on

erkki liikanen : southern engines of global growth – china, india, brazil and south africa opening remarks by mr erkki liikanen, governor of the bank of finland, at the unu - wider conference, helsinki, 7 september 2007. * * * introduction thank you for your kind introduction professor shorrocks, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to be here to open this conference on southern engines of global growth. china, india, brazil and south africa – together with many other emerging market countries – are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. their growing importance is being felt in many areas, including growth, trade, international finance, global governance, and geopolitics. as a backdrop, let me say first just a few words about the global economy. the ongoing global economic expansion is exceptionally broad in terms of geography. the strong growth in emerging market and developing countries is reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty, and the gap between average incomes of developing and developed countries is narrowing. these positive developments are clearly visible even for a casual observer, as i had the chance to witness earlier this year when i was traveling in subsaharan africa and latin america. however, despite these very favorable developments, there is no room for complacency. the extended period of rapid global growth has resulted in a build up of some tensions which, if left unaddressed, pose a threat to continued global growth in the longer term. one source of concern is global current account imbalances and the risk of their abrupt and disorderly unwinding. another source of concern is the uneven distribution of benefits of globalization within countries, which risks eroding support for globalization. these two concerns are closely linked to the rapid rise of emerging market countries. growth and trade as a small northern country with high per capita income, finland is quite different from the cibs - countries that are all large, southern, and still relatively poor. nevertheless, some of the factors behind finland's transformation from a poor agrarian economy to a modern advanced economy bear relevance to the current challenges of the cibs, or any other country that seeks to put in place conditions for sustained economic growth. first is a proactive attitude toward the internationalization of the economy, importantly through foreign trade. second is the importance of sound macroeconomic policies. that is, sound money, sustainable government finances and sustainable external position. third is a stable institutional environment