While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.

The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.

The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.

We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

Inflation is certainly low and stable and, measured in unemployment and labour-market slack, the economy has made a lot of progress. The pace of growth is disappointingly slow, mostly because productivity growth has been very slow, which is not really something amenable to monetary policy. It comes from changes in technology, changes in worker skills and a variety of other things, but not monetary policy, in particular.

Nobody likes to fail but failure is an essential part of life and of learning. If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the game.

The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis.