But what I can promise you is that before we issue final capital rules, we will do everything possible to address the concerns that have been expressed by community banks and still achieve the goal of having strong levels of high-quality capital – built up over a reasonable and realistic transitional period – in banks of all sizes, including community banks.
Since last fall, the jobless rate has been hovering around 4-1/2 percent, a relatively low level by historical standards, and it fell to 4.4 percent this past month.