Policy options to deal with turbulent times  In the beginning of these remarks, I pointed to the support which emerging market currencies and fixed-income assets have received from the rising expectations of US interest rate declines and the fall in long-term bond yields, both in the US and in other advanced economies.
•  The central bank owes its special position within the payment systems industry to its comparative advantage in sustaining confidence in what are ultimately "fiduciary" payment technologies. This comparative advantage derives from the central bank being part of, as Adam Smith once said of the Bank of England, the "machinery of state".