CIAO DATE: 05/2009
September 2008
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Speaking on August 22 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Annual Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke entitled his important address "Reducing Systemic Risk." Bernanke outlined three key elements of the Fed's response to what he described as "one of the most challenging economic and policy environments in memory." First, the Fed has eased monetary policy, cutting the federal funds rate from 5.25 percent to 2 percent. Second, the Fed has expanded its liquidity support by developing new special lending facilities to mitigate "very severe strains in short-term funding markets." The third and, as yet, unfinished element of the Fed's strategy involves "a range of activities and initiatives undertaken in our [the Fed's] role as financial regulator and supervisor."
Resource link: Risk and Systemic Risk [PDF] - 78K