If the past is any guide, the effect of rising interest rates is likely to be felt most visibly in housing markets.

The same considerations apply to homeowners. All else being equal, interest rates are higher now than they would be were real estate valuations less lofty, and if real estate prices begin to erode, homeowners should not expect to see all the gains of recent years preserved by monetary policy actions.

At this juncture, given the apparent strength in demand and the narrowing margin on unused resources, I am focused on making sure that inflation and inflation expectations remain well anchored. I do not know how much policy firming will be needed to accomplish this objective.

Whatever might have once been thought about the existence of a 'Greenspan put,' stock market, investors could not have endured the experience of the last five years in the United States and concluded that they were hedged on the downside by asymmetric monetary policy.

There has not been interest in the past to go that route. This is a subject that has been mentioned with the state coaches association in the past, but one of the concerns would be financial.

As interest rates have fallen sharply over the past 4-5 years ... we have seen a new batch of (young) investors taking aggressively to mutual funds.