Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  March  28,  2011,  BIS central bankers’ speeches  further boosting the share of minimum wage earners in the state. For example, the leisure and hospitality sector employs a disproportionate number of young people, and the average weekly wage in that sector is a very low $ So those are the facts. The Dallas Fed will henceforth be providing monthly updates on employment in Texas through our website at www.dallasfed.org. We hope it will be a useful tool for everyone ranging from columnists who write for the New York Times to the pundits who provide commentary for Fox News, as well as serious economists. FOMC decision Now to the second matter I wish to discuss with you today: my decision to dissent from the commitment of the majority of my colleagues on the FOMC in their decision to hold the base interest rate for interbank lending – the fed funds rate, the anchor of the yield curve – at its current level well into 2013. I have posited both within the FOMC and publicly for some time that there is abundant liquidity available to finance economic expansion and job creation in America. The banking system is awash with liquidity. It is a rare day when the discount windows – the lending facilities of the 12 Federal Reserve banks – experience significant activity.
Higher competition, in its turn, improves the efficiency, which ultimately leads to higher quality and lower prices for consumers. Indeed, this is one of the main ideas underpinning the European single market. This idea is undoubtedly true also for the banking industry. There is increasing evidence of the positive link between the efficiency of the financial system, of which banking is the most important part, and the wealth and growth of the real economy. Thus the potential benefits of a more efficient financial system are substantial. Considering that most financial services bought by consumers (private individuals and SMEs) are bought from their bank, the low integration (and in many cases low efficiency) of European banking is a significant hindrance to creating an overall efficient market in financial services. Barriers to integration Why then is integration of European retail banking not happening or only happening very slowly? The first and second bank harmonisation directives and more recently the many initiatives within the Financial Services Sector Plan, FSAP, have set the legal framework for cross-border expansion. In principle, any European bank can easily set up or acquire a subsidiary in another member state. More importantly, a bank only needs one single banking licence in one member state to be able to offer banking services in all EU member states. So why are we not seeing serious integration of European banking? A number of possible reasons have been cited. These could roughly be divided into three kinds: economic, regulatory, and political.