We Do Not Expect Significant Spillovers From

Inflation Is Certainly Low And Stable And, Measured In Unemployment And Labour-market Slack, The Economy Has Made A Lot Of Progress. The Pace Of Growth Is Disappointingly Slow, Mostly Because Productivity Growth Has Been Very Slow, Which Is Not Really Something Amenable To Monetary Policy. It Comes From Changes In Technology, Changes In Worker Skills And A Variety Of Other Things, But Not Monetary Policy, In Particular.

The American People Are Among The Most Productive In The World. We Have The Best Technologies. We Have - Great Universities. We Have Entrepreneurs.

The Amount Of Currency In Circulation Is Not Changing. The Money Supply Is Not Changing In Any Significant Way.

We Do Not Expect Significant Spillovers From The Subprime Market To The Rest Of The Economy Or To The Financial System.

There's No Denying That A Collapse In Stock Prices Today Would Pose Serious Macroeconomic Challenges For The United States. Consumer Spending Would Slow, And The U.s. Economy Would Become Less Of A Magnet For Foreign Investors. Economic Growth, Which In Any Case Has Recently Been At Unsustainable Levels, Would Decline Somewhat. History Proves, However, That A Smart Central Bank Can Protect The Economy And The Financial Sector From The Nastier Side Effects Of A Stock Market Collapse.