Jeremy Stein at the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors has expressed it as the advantage of monetary policy being that it "gets in all of the cracks”.27 It is also worth pointing out that in countries such as Norway and Canada they are fairly explicit in saying that the policy rate has a role to play in this context – and this is despite the fact that they have come further in the macroprudential field than we have.28 It remains to be seen where we eventually will end up when it comes to this issue. My own opinion is that we will probably not be able to have a completely strict division of labour between monetary policy and macroprudential policy and that the policy rate cannot be ruled out as a tool for counteracting financial imbalances. There will probably always be situations where macroprudential policy needs the support of a monetary policy that at least to some extent “leans against the wind”. But we still do not have any certain answers and I believe it is wise to keep all doors open. A formative stage Let me round off. There is no doubt that we are internationally in what one might call a formative stage with regard to macroeconomic policy in general and monetary policy in particular.
But as yet we do not know exactly where this process will take us, and how central bank operations will look in detail, say, twenty years from now. What we can say with certainty is that the discussion on monetary policy and central bank activities will be intensive over the coming years, both internally in individual countries and internationally. It is important that this discussion is unbiased and modulated and conducted in a good and positive spirit. This will help ensure that it results in wise and sustainable solutions. 12  BIS central bankers’ speeches  References Bank of Canada (2012), Bank of Canada maintains overnight rate target at 1 per cent. Press release 23 October. Bernanke, Ben S. (2010), Letter to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 21 December. Available at: http://fcic-static.law.stanford.edu/cdn_media/fcic-docs/2010-1221%20B%20Bernanke%20ltr%20to%20Angelides%20and%20Thomas%20re%20FOMC%2 0information.pdf Blanchard, Olivier, Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni and Mauro, Paolo (2013), Rethinking Macro Policy II: Getting Granular. IMF Staff Discussion Note 13/03, International Monetary Fund. Cagliarini, Adam, Kent, Christopher and Stevens, Glenn (2010), Fifty Years of Monetary Policy: What Have We Learned? In Kent, Christopher and Robson, Michael (ed) Reserve Bank of Australia 50th Anniversary Symposium. Proceedings of a conference held in Sydney on 9 February 2010. Reserve Bank of Australia. Carney, Mark (2013), Monetary Policy After the Fall. Speech at the University of Alberta 1 May 2013. Bank of Canada. Committee on International Economic Policy and Reform (2011), Rethinking Central Banking. Brookings Institution, Washington.