to the end of my prepared remarks. i would be happy to take your questions on what i have said, or on other any matters. thanks for listening. references becker, gary s. 1962. " irrational behavior and economic theory. " journal of political economy 70 ( 1 ) : 1 - 13. corelogic inc. 2011. “ new corelogic data shows slight decrease in negative equity. ” news release, june 7. davis, morris a., and jonathan heathcote. 2007. “ the price and quantity of residential land in the united states. ” journal of monetary economics 54 ( 8 ) : 2595 - 2620. harris interactive poll. 2011. internal revenue service. 2010. statistics of income division. individual complete report ( publication 1304 ), table 1. 2. shiller, robert j. 2011. “ the sickness beneath the slump. ” new york times, june 11. yellen, janet l. 2010. “ macroprudential supervision and monetary policy in the post - crisis world. ” speech at the annual meeting of the national association for business economics. denver, colo., oct. 11. see yellen ( 2010 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches

’ m sure that many of you have questions about that journey. the answers to all of your questions – and probably more – are on a new website that the fed has created at federalreservehistory. org. i encourage you to visit this site to learn more about the people, places and events that have shaped federal reserve history. i won ’ t say too much more about fed history – perhaps to the relief of some of you! – but i do want to address one of the things that i think has changed the most over the federal reserve ’ s history : our communication with the public. a hundred years ago, congress created a system that was designed specifically so that the residents of main street would have a voice in monetary policy. technology has changed a lot since 1914 – i ’ m told that they didn ’ t even have smartphones back then – and so the ways that we gather information from main street have changed. but this fact - finding is still an important part of the making of monetary policy. indeed, earlier today, i met with fargo business leaders to gather exactly this kind of information. communication is a two - way street, however. during the past century, the federal reserve ’ s communications to the public about its monetary policy actions have also evolved greatly. the pace of change was especially rapid in the past eight years under chairman bernanke ’ s leadership. during that time, the federal reserve specified an explicit target for inflation, began holding regular press conferences and greatly expanded its use of forward guidance – that is, its communications about the likely future evolution of policy. so, as the federal bis central bankers ’ speeches reserve system plans for its second century, i would say that the importance of two - way communication is a key lesson from the system ’ s first century. in order for the fed to continue to be effective, it needs to communicate its policy decisions transparently to the public. conversely, it also needs the public ’ s input into how those policies are affecting them. events like the one today, and my meeting with business leaders earlier today, are a key part of fostering that two - way communication. with that background in mind, let me turn back to the federal open market committee and the making of monetary policy. i mentioned that the fomc meets eight times per year. at those meetings, we decide on the level of monetary stimulus for the economy. i won ’ t get into too many details of what that term “ monetary stimulus ”