Members of the board of governors and the presence of the 12 reserve banks meet eight times a year, most recently a couple weeks ago to decide the stance of Monetary Policy. It is a negative assent, a magnificent, rather imposing room, with 26 foot ceilings, a monumental marble fireplace, and a 1000 pound brass and glass chandelier. It has seen a lot of history since frank was about dedicated this building Franklin Roosevelt dedicated this building. Through the decades, our Federal Reserve predecessors grappled with financial turmoil and the economys up and downs. When my colleagues and i take our places around this table, the history lends a certain formality, perhaps even stuffiness, to the proceedings. As we kick off this, the 12th of we hopeisten events, todays meeting is anything but stuffy. Candid and serious, yes, but not stuffy. The board and Federal Reserve banks have been Holding Meetings as part of our comprehensive Monetary Policy tools and munication is. Almost and communication practices. Almost all of these events have been livestream on the internet. The breath is unprecedented for us. It is always Good Practice for any organization to occasionally take a step back and ask if it could be doing its job more effectively. We must pose that question not just to ourselves, because congress has granted the Federal Reserve significant protection from shortterm political pressure. We have an obligation to clearly explain what we are doing, and why. We have an obligation to actively engage the people we serve so they and their elected representatives can hold us accountable. We invited you because we want to better understand how Monetary Policy affects the lives of people your organizations represent union members, Small Business owners, members of low income communities, retirees, and others. We want to hear your perspectives on maximum employment and price stability, the Monetary Policy goals congress assigned us. Now is a good time to conduct this review. Unemployment is at a halfcentury low, and employment is running close to our 2 objective. While not everyone fully shares Economic Opportunities and the economy faces some risks, overall, the economy is in a good place. Our job is to keep it there as long as possible. While we believe our strategies and tools remain effective, the u. S. Economy, like other advanced economies around the world, is facing longerterm challenges from low growth, low inflation, and low Interest Rates. While slow growth is not good, you may be asking what is wrong with low inflation and low Interest Rates . Low can be good, but when inflation and Interest Rates are too low, the fed and Central Banks have less room to cut during downturns. In this review, we are examining strategies that might allow us to better sustainably achieve 2 inflation. Doing so would help prevent Inflation Expectations among consumers, businesses, and investors from slipping too low, as they appear to have done in advanced economies around the world. More firmly, anchored expectations would help keep actual inflation around our target, thus preserving our ability to change Interest Rates as appropriate. We are looking at whether our existing Monetary Policy tools will be adequate when the next downturn comes. We are asking whether our Communications Practices can better support the effectiveness of our policy. Dfter today, we have two fe listen sessions next month. At the july meeting of the federal open market committee, my colleagues began discussing learned so far. Learned so far. We continued the discussion at our september meeting and have a lot of work left to do. We plan to publicly report our conclusions during the first half of next year. One clear takeaway of the sessions is the importance of sustaining our historically strong job market. People from low and moderate income communities tell us this long recovery, now into its 11th year, is benefiting them to a degree not felt for many years. Employees are partnering with Community Colleges and nonprofit organizations to offer training. People who have struggled to stay in the workforce in the past are getting new opportunities. Once again, welcome. Now it is your turn to speak. We will be listening. Thank you. Here is a look at our primetime schedule on cspan networks. Cspan, thestern on Blue Cross Blue Shield president looks at Health Insurance and the president of and the future of health care. Withspan2, it is book tv books on business and the economy. On cspan3, it is American History tv with programs on world war ii and the liberation i. Paris by allied troops the black hills of south dakota, a very sacred area has a whole. Believee black hills, i at one time or another, there is a piece of the rest of the world here. We are in the epicenter of sometimes testy relations between native and nonnative inhabitants. This weekend, the cspan cities tour takes you to rapid city, south dakota. We will go downtown to see their lifesized statues of each american president. And visit the journey museum, where the complex history of this area is told. , the custer exhibition that is the game changer. We will go into the nearby Black Hills National Forest to see mount rushmore, the states top tourist destination. And we will visit the crazy horse memorial and other places of black hills as we explore the contentious history of these lands. Join us this saturday at new eastern on book tv noon eastern on book tv as the cspan cities tour takes you to rapid city, south dakota, as we explore the american story. The Supreme Court justices returned for the new term next week, the first monday in october, with the Court Hearing cases on employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, the trump administrations winding down of daca, and state funding for religious education. Listen to significant Supreme Court oral arguments on c span. Org, and watch on cspan. Next, a book tv exclusive our cities tour visits