management practices. an enterprise - wide approach is appropriate for setting objectives across the organization, instilling a culture attuned to risk, and ensuring that key activities and risks are being monitored regularly. clearly, there is always an opportunity to improve upon enterprise risk - management strategies and strengthening the discipline to implement those strategies effectively. but vigilance is critical, too, since problems can sometimes quickly arise in a business line or unit that has presented no past difficulties. accordingly, it is always helpful to evaluate the " what if " scenarios even for the most pristine of business units. but the manner in which risk - management challenges are addressed can - and should - vary across institutions, based on their size, complexity, and individual risk profile. in many cases, it simply does not make sense for small organizations to adopt the most sophisticated risk - management practices ; however, that does not absolve such smaller institutions of their responsibility to improve risk management. additionally, as supervisors, we want to ensure that institutions are not only identifying, measuring, and managing their risks but are also developing and maintaining appropriate corporate governance structures appropriate for their business activities and risk taking. our hope is that the guidance we offer on these various topics is becoming more consistent with financial institutions'own risk - management practices. today i have used the example of mortgage lending to stress the importance of erm, but there are obviously many other areas to which erm applies. we believe that the recently issued guidance on nontraditional mortgage products contains helpful reminders and recommendations for institutions using those products, ensuring that they recognize the full set of risks involved. as a final point, i would like to stress that supervisors at all five federal banking agencies, including the ncua and the federal reserve, aim to implement the guidance as consistently as possible across institutions, since we do understand institutions'concerns about this issue. of course, it is always a challenge to ensure that guidance is applied consistently throughout the industry, especially when institution - specific factors - such as portfolio concentrations and individual risk - management practices - might affect the manner in which the guidance needs to be applied to individual organizations. but we have already begun to undertake efforts across our agencies, including extensive communication and coordination, so that institutions are not subjected to needlessly differing treatment.

1995 to about 2 - 3 / 4 percent from 1995 to 2002, if maintained, suggests that living standards could double in twenty - five years rather than fifty years at the lower rate. thus, the rate of productivity growth in an economy is not just an ivory tower concept. it translates into improvements in people ’ s well - being over the long term. understanding how such growth occurs - and having some fun doing it - is what the adventure is all about. in the short - run, when productivity is growing more rapidly, aggregate demand must also increase more quickly, in order to prevent economic slack from increasing. over the last several quarters, demand has not been expanding as quickly as the economy ’ s productive capacity, and the result has been the marked lack of job growth. but as demand accelerates, job growth should improve also. finally, while i would like to think that all of the federal reserve system ’ s economic education and financial literacy initiatives are lively and engaging, i suspect that the new england economic adventure will have special appeal. to many people history has a stronger allure than economics. new england has a particularly fascinating history and provides rich illustrations of economic decisionmaking. meanwhile, the computer - based interactive investment games link visitors to historical events, providing dramatic tension as well as fun. i have been told by the boston fed staff that the adventure program had to be slowed down a bit to allow time for cheers and moans after winners of the various rounds were displayed. boston middle school students were particularly enthusiastic. so again, i am delighted to be here to celebrate the opening of the new england economic adventure and to stress the importance of economic education and financial literacy.