Good afternoon, everyone, and happy new year to all. I’m excited to welcome you to the Eleventh Federal Reserve district, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you at this year’s Asset Management Derivatives Forum about the U.S. economy and monetary policy. Given your interests and the conference agenda, I’ll also take the opportunity to touch on some recent developments in the implementation of monetary policy. I look forward to a robust discussion. Before I begin, I should note these are my views and not necessarily those of my Federal Reserve colleagues. Congress gave the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policy making arm of the Federal Reserve, a dual mandate: to set monetary policy to deliver both price stability and maximum employment. The FOMC’s long-run strategy calls for a balanced approach to achieving these two objectives during periods when they are moving in opposite directions from the FOMC’s longer-run goals. FED’S LOGAN: POLICY NEAR NEUTRAL, INFLATION RISKS STILL SKEWED TO THE UPSIDE SAYS THE REAL FEDERAL FUNDS RATE NOW SITS SQUARELY WITHIN THE RANGE OF NEUTRAL RATE ESTIMATES NOTES THE CURRENT POLICY STANCE MAY BE VERY CLOSE TO NEUTRAL, PROVIDING LITTLE RESTRAIN SAYS INFLATION HAS…