10 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FOMC transcript and presentation materials, January 29-30,  2002. 11 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FOMC transcript and presentation materials, June 24-25,  2003. 12 See, for example, Lars E. O. Svensson, The Zero Bound in an Open Economy: A Foolproof Way of Escaping  from a Liquidity Trap, Monetary and Economic Studies, Volume 19, Issue S1, pp. 277-312, February 2001; Günter Coenen, Athanasios Orphanides, and Volker Wieland; , Price Stability and Monetary Policy Effectiveness When Nominal Interest Rates Are Bounded at Zero, Advances in Macroeconomics, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2004; Ben S. Bernanke and Vincent R. Reinhart. 2004. Conducting Monetary Policy at Very Low Short-Term Interest Rates, American Economic Review, Volume 94, No. 2, pp. 85-90, May 2004; Klaus Adam and Roberto M. Billi, Optimal Monetary Policy under Commitment with a Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Volume 38, No. 7, pp. 1877-1905, October 2006. 13 Reifschneider and Williams 2000; Board of Governors 2002. 14 Gauti B. Eggertsson and Michael Woodford, The Zero Bound on Interest Rates and Optimal Monetary Policy,  Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Volume 34, No. 1, pp. 139-211, 2003; Reifschneider and Williams 2000. 15 Ben S. Bernanke, Vincent R. Reinhart, and Brian P. Sack, Monetary Policy Alternatives at the Zero Bound: An  Empirical Assessment, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, The Brookings Institution, Volume 35, No. 2, pp. 1–100, 2004.
This despite the fact that the economy was in the midst of a productivity-driven boom, the longest expansion on record, and the prevailing federal funds rate was 5.25 percent. These papers and the ensuing discussions and debates planted seeds that would germinate in research and policymaking. Central banks across the globe ultimately used variations of nearly all of the tools discussed at the conference. Indeed, the topics of interest rate policies, targeting asset prices, asset purchases, and negative interest rates are among the most prominent discussions in monetary economics today. Importantly, this research made its way straight to policymakers within a few years—a quick turnaround by central bank standards! In January 2002, Marvin, Dave, and I reprised our roles from the conference in briefings to the FOMC.10 And in June 2003, Vince Reinhart briefed the FOMC on alternative monetary policy approaches—including asset purchases and forward guidance—to mitigate the effects of the ZLB.11 This was followed by a flurry of further research by academics and central bank economists that delved deeper into these topics.12  Putting Research into Practice This research had important practical lessons for policymakers in the United States and abroad following the global financial crisis.