Over that period, of course, asset prices were also responding to economic news and some favorable corporate earnings reports, but the overall pattern of the financial market data bolstered my confidence in the effectiveness of the Federal Reserve’s  9  In addition, the federal funds rate is assumed to remain unchanged from baseline for several years and then to follow the prescriptions of a simple estimated policy rule; for further details, see Chung and others (2011).
Today’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, which sets out the mutual obligations of the Eurosystem and CSDs, brings us another step closer towards realising this goal. The presence here of settlement houses operating not only in the euro area but also from across Europe, is evidence of the widespread support in the market for the project.