Employees may also need to be prepared to perform services manually if computer systems become unavailable. Hurricane Katrina also reminds us that unlike a fire, which may interrupt only the bank’s own activities as the community continues business as usual, a more widespread event causes banks to serve as agents of recovery for both their immediate and larger communities.
So, whether we look over the past six years or over the past two years, inflation has been running too low to be consistent with price stability. The good news is that the FOMC does expect inflation to turn back toward 2 percent. However, that return to 2 percent could take a long time.