Community banks make a critical contribution to the prosperity of both their localities and the nation as a whole, which is why we at the Federal Reserve and the other banking agencies are acutely interested in their long-term strength and viability.1 Today I will discuss the role community banking organizations play in supporting the health of our economy, as well as some of the challenges they face.
Looking much further ahead, we should wonder what will be the future political institutional framework of Europe. Immanuel Kant argued that, where countries are interdependent, institutions will continue to develop between them until a stable equilibrium is reached.