It certainly was, for example, in the fall of 1998, when virtually every risk premium measure that we monitor appeared to indicate a sharp withdrawal from risk-taking on the part of investors.
That withdrawal threatened financial stability and, as a consequence, real activity; the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) risk-management approach to policy dictated that the target rate be eased enough to substantially reduce the odds on a very adverse outcome. As you can see, we read risk premiums in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes.