There are a number of other, similarly key, requirements in the guidance which I will not detail here – for example the need for a responsible and accountable legal entity behind the operation and for governance arrangements which allow for timely human intervention, ensuring that expert judgement and decision making is available to deal with unforeseen circumstances. The guidance also provides considerations for what should be considered systemically important in this context, though I should note that all payment systems are encouraged to observe the PFMI. The point is that in this one area of the financial system, systemic payments, we are engaged in the work to deliver “same risk, same regulatory outcome”. Stablecoins used primarily for payment are just one element of the crypto- ecosystem. For the ‘same risk, same regulatory outcome’ approach to be effective, it needs to be carried forward across international standards and those standards need to be incorporated into domestic regulatory regimes. Similar work is also in train in other areas. The Basel Committee on Banking Standards is in the process of issuing guidance on the prudential treatment of cryptoassets held by banks[6]. IOSCO is looking at the application of the standards for investor protection and market integrity across cryptoassets, exchanges and platforms for lending and trading[7]. These international standard setting bodies are working closely together on stablecoins to ensure we understand how we treat  Page 7  similar risks in different regulatory regimes and how the regimes might interact with each other.
And yet, even in this blessed state, there are too many unemployed and underemployed, just as there are in the rest of America. We can do better. America must do better. The question is: How? To create employment, we must have economic growth. The simplest of econometric equations posits that the key components of economic growth are domestic consumption, plus foreign demand for U.S.-produced exports, plus investment by businesses, plus spending by government. I think it is pretty clear to everyone who lives on the planet that in order to grow our economy and put our people back to work, we must rely on our ability to curry to domestic and foreign  1  The Great Recession’s end date was established by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially declares the beginning and end of recessions. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  consumption and invest here at home to produce the goods and services to sell in the marketplace. You’d have to be from Mars to believe that the federal and state governments will be the source of much direct spending stimulus to the economy. Presently, all eyes are focused on the budget negotiations in Washington as the debt-ceiling clock ticks on. Aesop’s classic fable comes to mind. Rather than work like ants to build and store for difficult times, our fiscal authorities – Congress after Congress, under Republican and Democrat leadership alike, and with presidents of both parties occupying the White House – have been proverbial grasshoppers.