*  *  Introduction  Ladies and gentlemen Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the joint conference of the SUERF Colloquium, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Foundation Geld und Währung. It is a pleasure to be here this evening, and I hope that your discussions today have been fruitful and informative.
Currently, people 65 years and older make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population, and there are about five people between the ages of 20 and 64 for each person 65 and older.