John C. Williams’ Speeches

Thank you. It’s a pleasure to participate in the 2012 Santa Barbara County Economic Summit. It’s especially nice for my Fed colleagues from other parts of the country to experience firsthand the beautiful scenery and wonderful weather that we Californians get to enjoy every day. In my presentation today, I’m going to sketch out the […]

Thank you. It’s a particular pleasure to be with you this morning. We live in a rapidly changing and ever-more-competitive global economy. It’s vital that every region understand and leverage its special attributes and competitive advantages. SPUR has long been on the forefront of thinking about these questions for San Francisco. We’re very lucky to […]

Thank you. It’s a particular pleasure to be with you this morning. The subject of my talk today is the outlook for the economy and Federal Reserve policy. I’ll start with a look at the national economy, focusing on why the recent recession was so severe and why the recovery has been relatively anemic. I’ll […]

Thank you. It’s a pleasure to participate in this event and to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of the wonderful state of Hawaii. Sadly, this is my first visit here in 25 years. In fact, the last time I was here was back when I worked for a small business in the San Francisco Bay […]

It’s a pleasure to participate in this year’s Monetary Policy Forum. I am particularly pleased to be discussing today’s paper. The authors have done an excellent job of analyzing and illuminating a key sector that has had profound effects on the economy, effects that policymakers have been wrestling with. I appreciate the opportunity to offer […]

Good evening and thank you for coming tonight. It is a great honor to be part of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum Lecture series. I saw that Allan Meltzer spoke at an Athenaeum luncheon a few weeks ago. Allan wrote what many consider to be the definitive history of the Fed. So, many of you […]

Good morning. I want to thank Alex and all of you for coming to the forum this morning. I get to travel all over the world to give talks, but I’ll admit it’s nice to be able to just jump in my car and not have to go through airport security and delays to be […]

Good morning.  It’s a great pleasure to join you at The Columbian’s Economic Forecast Breakfast.  It’s amazing to think that Lewis and Clark came by here on their way to the Pacific Ocean just a little more than 200 years ago.  Of course, I arrived by plane and didn’t need Sacagawea to show me the […]

We are now nearly two-and-a-half years into the recovery from the worst U.S. recession in decades. The Federal Reserve has taken extraordinary actions during the past four years to stem what could have been a meltdown of the financial system and a horrific depression. These actions included several lender-of-last-resort programs aimed at alleviating liquidity shortfalls […]

Thank you.  It’s a pleasure to be with you in Phoenix this morning.  I must tell you though that I am a fervent San Francisco Giants fan, and I am still smarting from the way the Diamondbacks snatched the Western Division championship from us this year.  But you invited me here to speak about the […]