to profanity ). all i will say is that you and your neighbors and friends and customers are the ones who elect people to office and whether you are a “ d ” or an “ r, ” you need only look at yourself in the mirror to see who is in charge of placing the right people in office to get the job done of putting the american economy back on track. i ’ d say you have some serious work to do here. conclusion for today, just bear in mind that the fed is doing its utmost to be an enlightened regulator of your banks. for the economy as a whole, there is abundant liquidity to finance economic expansion, and the fomc will assure that it remains affordable as long as the prospect of inflation rising above its 2 percent target remains in abeyance. it is too early to say that the economy can declare laissez les bon temps rouler. but for you bankers in this audience today, you might be forgiven if you kick up your heels a little bit while you are in new orleans … though the curmudgeonly old fed will be watching to make sure that for its part, you don ’ t let things get out of hand. thank you, drake. thank you all. now, in the best tradition of central banking, i would be happy to avoid answering any questions you have. bis central bankers ’ speeches

you are the backbone for the homeowners, small businesses, service clubs and school sports teams and scouts and churches and myriad other activities that make for better communities. we want you not only to endure, but to succeed and grow. and we want to make sure you play on an even playing field with those who have legions of white - shoe lawyers and k street lobbyists you couldn ’ t dream of affording. i wanted to just say that at the outset. bis central bankers ’ speeches monetary policy going forward : de - spiking the punch bowl 10 ounces at a time now, if you will indulge me, i want to speak of the direction of monetary policy from here onward. the federal open market committee ( fomc ) is in the process of winding down its massive purchases of treasuries and mortgage - backed securities. at our last meeting, in recognition that the economy is improving and acknowledging that we have generated massive amounts of excess reserves among depository institutions operating in the u. s., we voted to reduce our purchases to a combined $ 45 billion per month, on the path to eliminating them at the earliest practicable date. speaking only for myself as a voting member, barring some destabilizing development in the real economy that comes out of left field, i will continue to vote for the pace of reduction we have undertaken, reducing by $ 10 billion per meeting our purchases and eliminating them entirely at the october meeting with a final reduction of $ 15 billion. i was not for this program, popularly known as qe3, to begin with. i doubted its efficacy and was convinced that the financial system already had sufficient liquidity to finance recovery without providing tinder for future inflation. but i lost that argument in the fall of 2012, and i am just happy that we will be rid of the program soon enough. i am often asked why i do not support a more rapid deceleration of our purchases, given my agnosticism about their effectiveness and my concern that they might well be leading to froth in certain segments of the financial markets. the answer is an admission of reality : we juiced the trading and risk markets so extensively that they became somewhat addicted to our accommodation of their needs. you may remember the “ taper tantrum ” market operators threw last spring when we broached the idea of temperance. it went over about as big as would saying you wanted to ban hurricanes and other happy - making libation