As many of you know, I became a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System only a month ago. I am delighted to be giving my first speech as a governor at a conference that has resulted from the kind of international cooperation that I see as essential in today’s world. The joint sponsorship of this conference by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (Chicago Fed) represents an extremely fruitful collaboration of researchers, market participants, and policymakers from both sides of the Atlantic. Having been a research consultant at the Chicago Fed for many years and having visited the ECB numerous times since its founding less than eight years ago, I have many friends at both institutions and am pleased to see so many of those friends here today.