Allocation of the resources the Federal Reserve uses to do its job depends heavily on the state of the economy (both national and international), how well or badly the financial services system is functioning, and what additional tasks (such as implementation of the Community Reinvestment Act and expansion of our oversight of foreign banks operating in the US pursuant to the Foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act of 1991) the Congress assigns to us.
Since the introduction of the single currency, financial integration at the level of institutions, markets and market infrastructures has been making significant progress. This is especially the case in wholesale markets, such as the unsecured money market, the government bond market and the related derivatives markets.