Having the honour of speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce, I will – you will not be surprised – draw some comparisons with the United States of America. The first is that the euro area is an economically integrated and large economic block that, in many respects, is similar to the US. These two economies are the two largest economic areas in the world. In 1999, the euro area GDP (including Greece) was equivalent to 16% of world GDP, whereas the share of the United States was 22%. In terms of population, the United States (with 272 million inhabitants) is slightly smaller than the euro area (with 302 million inhabitants). Underlying institutional and political structures The euro is both a product and part of the process of European integration, which began already fifty years ago. This is a process that continues to evolve. The Eurosystem, comprising the ECB and the national central banks of the euro area, operates within the broader underlying framework of the European Union. In order to put this framework into perspective, allow me to draw a few simple comparisons with the US. Beginning with the similarities, I should first point out that both the EU and the US benefit from having written constitutions or constitution-like treaties. For the US, this is the constitution issued by the Philadelphia convention of 1787, while the EU's "constitution" is set out by the successive treaties which established first the European Community and later the European Union.
At the Federal Reserve, we try to meet with a diverse array of people in order to get a comprehensive picture of economic conditions in the regions we serve and a fuller understanding of the major issues. Earlier today, I met with developers and local community leaders to learn about the redevelopment of the Atlantic Yards, was welcomed to a roundtable breakfast meeting with members of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and then traveled to Brownsville to learn about the challenges faced by that community. Following this visit to Brooklyn College, I’m headed to Bush Terminal in Sunset Park to meet with city officials and learn about an important redevelopment project and then I’ll end the day at Etsy – a successful innovative start-up and a major private-sector employer here in Brooklyn. These trips are only one of the many ways in which we seek to engage with the people and businesses in our region. We also reach out to our local communities through web resources, workshops and conferences. To assess the performance of the regional economy, we monitor economic activity on a monthly basis, we tap into the insights of the members of our Small Business and Agriculture Advisory Council and Upstate Advisory Board, and we have constructed a consumer credit panel that allows us to better understand the financial condition of homeowners and students at the local level.