My remarks focus on the relationship between monetary policy and the recent turmoil in the markets for housing, housing finance, and beyond. I begin with a review of the period leading up to the crisis. I then use this review as a basis for discussing the role of monetary policy in resolving such crises and preventing future crises. A Great Moderation of the Housing Cycle When you look back over the past half century in the United States you see a remarkable secular change in the housing cycle. Most importantly, the volatility or average size of the fluctuations in residential construction declined. The change occurred in the early 1980s. For example, compare two periods, the first before the early 1980s and the second since the 1980s. In the earlier period the standard deviation of residential investment relative to trend was around 13 percent; in the later period it was 5 percent, and this includes the most recent fluctuation which is much larger than the average since the early 1980s. Without the current cycle the reduction would be even larger. In my view this decline in volatility was largely due to an improved monetary policy, and it is closely related to the Great Moderation of the volatility of real GDP and