a better understanding of a wide variety of this type of data, from the considerations families face in making spending decisions ( including the costs of childcare ) to factors weighed by business owners in applying for loans and offering benefits to help attract top talent, all provide better insight into our data collection. these conversations help us to gain perspective on how americans in different areas of the country are faring. some of the issues discussed today may be unique to the seventh district, but certainly many 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches of these themes and dynamics are present throughout the country and across all 12 federal reserve districts. seeking out local perspectives is one of the great advantages of the federal reserve system's regional structure and of the fed listens structure in particular. earlier, i had the pleasure to meet each of the panelists you'll hear from today. their varied experiences and backgrounds across sectors lay an important foundation for today's discussion. we hope that our attendees will also join in to share your own observations as you experience these issues in your own lives, businesses, and communities. your perspective will help to inform our work as policymakers with the responsibility to promote a strong and vibrant economy for all americans. so with that, i would like to say, thank you again, austan, and especially to recognize your entire chicago fed team for hosting this fed listens event today and for the opportunity to be part of this discussion. without further ado, i am delighted to get our conversation started by turning things over to robin newberger, who is a policy advisor here at the chicago fed. 1 the views expressed here are my own and are not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal reserve board or the federal open market committee. 2 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches

these technologies are available to all, the intensity of their application and the accompanying elevation in the growth of productivity are more clearly evident in the united states and other countries with fewer impediments to implementation. parenthetically and counterintuitively, the increased ease of layoffs in the united states, by reducing the risks of hiring by american employers, has contributed to a higher rate of employment in the united states compared with the vast majority of our major trading partners. a particular irony in all this is that europeans have been finding investments in the united states increasingly attractive and have accounted for an increasing share of the expanding total of foreign investment in u. s. direct and portfolio assets. in an effort to raise returns on domestic assets, many governments, european and others, are being led away from former dirigiste regimes to place greater reliance on markets. these governments see such a direction as necessary in order to enable their firms and workers to achieve the efficiencies required to meet the rigors of international competition. recent plans for tax reforms, significant initiatives to create more flexible labor markets, and ongoing steps toward greater privatization in europe and elsewhere underscore the extent to which views have changed in recent years. but it is clearly pragmatism, not ideology, that is the main driving force in these evolving views. the structural policy adjustments in western europe and japan, not to mention the efforts in china and russia to move toward market capitalism, are being motivated, for the most part, by the evident ability of market competition to elevate living standards. thus, despite the meaningfully different views initially held of the way the world does, and should, work, powerful global competitive forces appear for now to be driving the economic and legal paradigms of many nations into closer alignment around a more competitive market capitalism. it is by no means self - evident, however, that these trends will eventually lead to world convergence of economic regimes and to agreement about the conceptual framework that such a convergence would likely require. certainly, the demonstrated ability of relatively unfettered markets to raise living standards over time creates considerable incentive for movement in that direction. but the speed of that movement - indeed, its very persistence over time - is far less clear. even among liberal democracies, one can still find deep - seated antipathy toward free - market competition and its partner, creative destruction, to use joseph schumpeter ’ s now famous insight. while recognizing the efficacy of capitalism to produce wealth,