Rather, a common regulatory system and a genuine single EU-wide market in financial services should allow firms to concentrate on the relative merits of alternative locations in relation to the standard factors identified in the economic geography literature. In the coming years, the analysis of these locational decisions promises to be a major research field for economists and financial geographers.
And before I begin, I should remind you that my comments here today reflect my views alone and not necessarily those of others in the Federal Reserve System, including my FOMC colleagues. Some FOMC basics Let me begin with some basics about the Federal Reserve System.