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Addressing policy problems involves teamwork, leadership, and clear communications—examples range from addressing the 9/11 crisis to passing the Check-21 Act. The U.S. continues to face the major problems of financing retirement and health care. There are no magic answers—it is an interesting time to be an economist thinking about entitlements. Climate change is another area that economists are trained to think about, and it may be starting to play into conversations about central banking, adding to questions about the use of nontraditional tools. While there are proposals to increase the use of automatic fiscal stabilizers, these may look simple, but are quite complex in reality.

The U.S. economy, while recovering, is still feeling lingering effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the recession that followed. Although government has acted to prevent a future recurrence, much needs to be done—particularly in corporate governance of financial firms. Currently, there is a pervasive lack of trust in the financial industry, which will be difficult to undo. Nonetheless, finance is so important that it is critical that trust be restored. This is particularly true in an era in which planning for retirement is inadequate, and financial literacy is increasingly important. This implies a critical role for a financial services industry whose guidance can be trusted. This trust must be built through appropriate corporate governance on the part of all stakeholders, and specific recommendations are advanced for bringing this about.

All over the world, nations are grappling with the challenge of retirement income. In the United States, the level of angst around the subject continues to grow, as demographic and economic factors converge to make people less and less confident about their prospects for achieving a financially secure retirement. An article in the Washington Post earlier this year perfectly captured the snapshot of where we are today. Citing research findings (Fletcher, 2013), the article said that for the first time since the New Deal, a majority of Americans are headed to a retirement in which they will be worse off than their parents. The reason is the huge deficit in retirement savings in our country. A 2012 Senate report calculated that deficit to be as much as$6.6 trillion, or about $ 57,000 for every household in America.

The population of the United States is aging, putting unsustainable strains on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. These programs must be reformed, but there will also be increased pressure on individuals to save more and work longer if they are to enjoy a healthy retirement. Moreover, individuals must become much more sophisticated about the financial aspects of retirement in order to make wise choices. That said, the United States has many good options for successfully coping with the challenges of aging, but it is imperative that we act now.

A number of observers argue that the present era of robust trend productivity growth will soon come to an end. Others contend that the potential gains to productivity from the technological advances associated with the computer revolution are far from complete. In assessing the likelihood of these alternative outcomes, one should recognize that periods of strong trend productivity growth, although perhaps novel to many of us, are not new to the U.S. economy. In particular, three earlier periods of strong trend productivity growth stand out from the historical record as especially worthy of further scrutiny for the lessons they may offer regarding the current episode: the late 1800s from roughly the end of the Civil War to around 1890; the decade or so between the end of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression; and the period from about 1950 to the early 1970s.

A speech by Roger W. Ferguson Jr, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, at the Cato Institute's 23rd Annual Monetary Conference in Washington, DC, on Nov 3, 2005, is presented. By now it must be universally agreed that low and stable inflation is a primary and essential goal for monetary policy, in large part because people believe it brings stability to financial systems and fosters sustainable economic growth over the longer run. In pursuit of this goal, central banks can report some success. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) figures for the US show a smaller but still substantial decline in headline inflation, from about 3.75% to 2.5%. His generation of central bankers has the job of maintaining the victories of the previous generation and of using all their tools to keep inflation expectations contained and inflation low and stable. They owe their predecessors and their fellow citizens nothing less.

Approaches to regulating financial institutions are discussed. Given the current level of global financial upset, which can be traced in part to poor banking regulation in many countries, no subject is more timely. The focus is on 2 topics: 1. What are the respective roles of market regulation and government regulation? 2. What are the different ways of organizing the government supervision and regulation of financial institutions that include a bank?

These remarks focus on two issues with respect to safeguarding good monetary policy practice. First, they discuss what constitutes good monetary policy practice and review the Federal Reserve's record in satisfying its mandates in recent decades. Then, they speculate on how good policy outcomes come about. In particular, they discuss the role of policy transparency, central bank leadership, and alternative monetary policy regimes in preserving effective monetary policy.

Financial consolidation clearly is a powerful force that is deeply affecting the evolution of the financial system of the US and many other nations. A thorough understanding of this force and its potential effects is critical for prudent decision making in both the public and private sectors. A study that takes some major steps toward that understanding is summarized.