Today, total employment is up 5 percent from pre-pandemic levels and is at a nine-year high, and the unemployment rate is at a record low. The recovery has been broad-based, but we've seen particular strength in certain industries like professional business services, transportation and warehousing, and manufacturing. Tourism rebounded significantly too, with hotel occupancy rates reaching above 75 percent. Soaring Inflation All in all, maximum employment has been achieved. But inflation remains unacceptably high, and we are far from the Fed's longer-run inflation goal of 2 percent. Since early last year, inflation has increased rapidly to levels many of you have not seen in your lifetimes. This experience is not unique to the United States; nearly all countries around the world are seeing rising costs, and central banks everywhere are working to contain them. The rise in inflation has been extraordinary. In December 2020, overall inflation, as measured by the 12-month percent change in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, was 1.3 percent. In May of this year, it was 6.3 percent. A significant portion of this sharp rise reflects global increases in food and energy prices. But, even excluding those costs, the "core" inflation rate has increased from 1.5 percent a year and a half ago to 4.7 percent today. It's more than just numbers. High inflation is incredibly harmful, especially to those that can least afford to shoulder the escalating costs of necessities like food, fuel, and housing.
Thomas Jordan: Does the Swiss National Bank need equity? Summary of a speech by Mr Thomas Jordan, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, to the Statistisch-Volkswirtschaftliche Gesellschaft, Basel, 28 September 2011. *  *  *  The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). The Swiss National Bank (SNB) had to report heavy losses for 2010 and the first half of 2011 due to the strength of the Swiss franc – or, more precisely, due to valuation changes on its foreign currency reserves. Consequently, it suffered a substantial reduction in its equity. Understandably in such a situation, concerns began to be voiced in public. Questions often posed in this context include: Might the SNB lose its capacity to act as a result of a negative equity level? And, if its equity were negative, would the SNB have to be recapitalised, or might it even have to go into administration? The short answer to these questions is “No”, because the SNB cannot be compared with commercial banks or other private enterprises. For one thing, a central bank cannot become illiquid. This means that a central bank’s capacity to act is not constrained if its equity turns negative. Moreover, unlike other enterprises, it is not forced to implement recovery measures or go into administration. For another, central banks enjoy a funding advantage over private companies, owing to their banknote-issuing privilege. Moreover, they generate surplus income over the long term.