Expectations again ran ahead of reality, as the speculative excesses in “dot-com” investments ultimately led to the collapse of equity prices at the turn of the century. Emerging market crises display similar characteristics. The commodity boom in the 1970s and the miracle of the “Asian tigers” in the 1990s spawned the belief that emerging economies could make an extraordinary development leap.
– but I do want to address one of the things that I think has changed the most over the Federal Reserve’s history: our communication with the public. A hundred years ago, Congress created a system that was designed specifically so that the residents of Main Street would have a voice in monetary policy.