But you would be able to pull it back down.

I’d like to ask one question just, again, about going forward. We talked about what you would do differently tomorrow under alternatives A and B and determined that it was nothing. What would you do going forward if federal funds started to trade above 25 basis points under alternative ...

Would that say the “Committee will” or “the Federal Reserve will”? Perhaps “the Committee will continue to consider ways to use the Federal Reserve balance sheet.”

Would that say “the Committee”?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do favor alternative A. In terms of what will happen with the prime rate, I frankly don’t know, but I think it will leave the banks to determine their own prime rate and floors as they wish. I would not minimize the fact that ...

Mr. Chairman, just one response to President Lacker’s and President Plosser’s observations, which I think are related. If you set the rate that we are going to pay for interest on reserves the same as the target rate for fed funds and the market does repair itself and ...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yesterday I talked about the income statement of the banks. I would like to talk a bit about the balance sheets now. Up to this point, for the small and medium-sized community banks, it has been pretty much business as usual. But now even those banks ...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to make it unanimous in thanking the staff. For me, particularly, you have extended the process by which every hour that I’ve been here has been deeply educational and have helped put the things I’ve been doing since I got here ...

Thank you. I confess I find myself torn between the position of President Plosser and the equally compelling arguments of Governor Kohn, and that makes alternative B quite attractive as a way, not because of any optimism about the economic outcome, but I really do question the effectiveness of any ...

Well, I don’t know. But just as soon as they get them switched over there, maybe we’ll be successful at bringing LIBOR down.

Actually, I have heard a couple of reports that, when we did that last 50 basis point cut, banks did not lower their prime. A lot of banks still have prime-related credits. As we lower the rates, whether it makes a difference on anything else, it affects the prime, and ...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I focused on the “more rapid financial recovery” scenario, not so much because I thought it was the most likely but just trying to think what it would take to bring that about. I’m not sure that the policy changes we have done recently will ...

As part of my preparation when I talked to the banks, I asked them specifically this question about interest on reserves, and every single one of them said, “We haven’t had time to even focus on it. We don’t even know what’s going on with that. We ...

Mr. Chairman, if I could.

I’m in favor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have an awful lot to add to what has already been said. I’m not optimistic that this will necessarily increase financial institutions’ confidence in lending to each other, but I think the coordinated action at least will be something that maybe helps ...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I continue to focus on the traditional commercial bank structure. I looked at two large retail banks, three regional banks, and three community banks, and two things came out of this. First, capital is driving everything, and the amount of capital that the banks need is ...

Thank you. I support alternative B. I don’t think that the “severe financial stress” scenario is out of the question right now.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was advised to speak of things I know, so all of my comments will have to do with commercial banks and the traditional banking operations within those banks. Also, they are limited to the market area that I operated in. I was in a large ...