Speech: Decline of global long-term interest rates

At the High-Level Conference on Global Risk, Uncertainty, and Volatility co-sponsored by the Bank for International Settlements, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Swiss National Bank, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Clarida discussed the decline in long-term interest rates and the role of monetary policy. He noted that from the late 1980s, when 10-year nominal Treasury yields in the United States and sovereign rates in many other major advanced economies were around 10 percent, global bond yields in the advanced economies have trended lower to levels below 2 percent today. He noted the economy is constantly evolving, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges. One of these challenges is how best to conduct monetary policy in the new world of low equilibrium interest rates.