NEW YORK (Reuters) – Establishing a pan-European banking union is a “critically important next step” to stabilizing that region’s troubled economy, an influential U.S. Federal Reserve official said on Monday, wading into a debate that has split the euro zone.

William Dudley told a conference on transatlantic economic interdependence that Europe’s economic outlook “seems less bright” and support for fiscal and structural changes could further erode if growth does not “resume relatively soon.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Easy money policies are bringing some relief to lower-income Americans hard-hit in the recession and the easing could become increasingly potent as the housing market recovers, a top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.

In a speech on equality and the economy, Fed Governor Sarah Raskin backed the policy accommodation and argued it would continue to help the overall economic recovery. But the long-running trend of inequality and stagnating wages in the United States has slowed that rebound, she said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s ultra accommodative policies will inevitably result in financial-market instability for years but such risks are necessary to boost employment and inflation, a top U.S. central bank official said on Thursday.

Likening the Fed to a Minnesotan heading out into the winter cold, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota said low real interest rates are as necessary as wearing a warm parka, and will probably be needed for many more years.