Despite our best efforts, we cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel and key financial markets and economic sectors remain under stress. It would be very difficult to predict when exactly our economies will return to normality, but I would be prepared to bet that, when this finally happens, the world will look different in many respects.
If we had left those pressures unchecked, we would have put at risk some of the hard-won gains that had been achieved over the preceding decade and a half. So, starting from a real federal funds rate that was close to zero, a preemptive tightening was initiated.