, such as those jobs that require person - to - person interaction. nevertheless, technology allowed many employees to continue working 1 / 4 bis - during a pandemic. also, it likely had an indelible effect on current and future ways of working, including encapsulating hybrid work and greater flexibility for employees as fixtures. the shift to remote and hybrid learning, however, was difficult, but without technology, learning during lockdown might have ceased entirely. in some cases, schools were closed for only a few weeks or months, and the entire in - person learning apparatus was replaced with technology - enabled remote learning. the teachers and administratorsand i was one at the time - adapted remarkably quickly to a dramatically different set of tools and techniques. teachers, students, and parents made a rapid shift to an entirely new dynamic, often on entirely new platforms. we are still learning the lessons of that interlude, and they can influence how schools at all levels think about future planning. my colleagues and i recently heard from a community college administrator about the challenges she faced. training programs that fill worker demand in local industries require hands - on experience, which meant retooling the curriculum for a hybrid environment. student services also had to change to accommodate the increased need for childcare and other pandemic - related hurdles, or her school risked a drop in enrollment. the payments system has also seen an acceleration in alternative online and mobile payment methods as well as contactless payment options. we all remember the onset of the pandemic, when social distancing became imperative and delivery and curbside pickup became the norm for many. remote card payments naturally rose as in - person use fell. as stores reopened while the fear factor was still considerable, the contactless payment options that were available on cards and mobile devices received more attention. such changes, coupled with the growing prominence of person - to - person money transfer apps, provided consumers with remote and touchless cash substitutes in their daily lives. the expanded use of those various payment options rested on the foundation of an intricate, robust payments ecosystem. that system supported a migration from in - person payment options to no - contact alternatives, helping restart the economy during a time of deep stress. these are just a few of the examples you have been discussing, and there are many more. the pandemic, and the tech - enabled responses to it, changed the economy in fundamental ways that will likely not revert. it is vital to understand those changes and

the market restraint, and in the future markets will be less likely to perform this stabilizing function. of course, there will be times when the bond market is, in our view, misreading the strength of the economy and hence also misjudging the future course of our policy. in this case, we should ignore the bond market and provide an anchor for long - term interest rates to adjust back toward. implications of a money growth rule as i have just noted, a pro - cyclical path for short - term interest rates would result from following a money growth rule. for an extended period, money demand has been insufficiently stable to allow the monetary aggregates to play a constructive role in the monetary policy process. more recently, the relationship between m2 and its determinants has stabilized, but the period of a more stable relationship has been relatively brief and has coincided with a relatively stable economy. as a result, there is not yet much inclination to place increased weight on m2 in the policy process. what i am offering here is therefore only a thought experiment. assume that the money demand function for m2 has stabilized and that we could conduct policy by enforcing a constant rate of m2 growth. assuming policy maintained a fixed rate of money growth ( perhaps the better way to define an unchanged policy ), what would be the effect of a cyclical strengthening of the economy ( an increase in nominal income growth )? the answer, of course, is that short - term interest rates would rise. this is of course just another way of telling the is - lm story. what would it take to prevent interest rates from rising? the answer is that an increase in the rate of money growth would be required to accommodate the faster pace of nominal income growth. but would this be prudent? i think not. policy in an interest rate regime : the importance of flexibility note that under a money growth strategy, it is possible to operate without a change in policy ( no change in money growth ) while nevertheless imposing an important degree of stability to the economy through the resulting pro - cyclical movement in interest rates. a constant rate of money supply will not always be optimal, but it will keep you out of a lot of serious trouble you could otherwise get into. the federal reserve and virtually all other central banks operate in a policy regime in which we set some short - term interest rate - - in our case, the federal funds rate. for a variety of reasons, this is generally viewed as the