What I am going to serve you is not a light dessert but a rather heavy main dish with the following ingredients: •  First, a reminder of some features of the financial market trends, including the lessons to be drawn for economic policy;  •  second, a brief note on recent work in official international fora on financial stability;  •  third, an assessment of the relationship between public policy and markets;  •  fourth, an outlook on the course policymakers should pursue in the future;  •  and fifth, some reasons why financial stability issues are of concern to central bankers.
1. With the new millenium approaching, we clearly have not reached the end of history as one author suggested several years ago. We are rather in the process of transforming our economies, and financial markets have become a driving force behind this transformation, mostly supporting it, but capable of seriously disrupting it at times.