Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, who assumed his post on May 28, said in a recent speech that since the financial crisis the United States has done much to strengthen the financial system and reduce the likelihood of future crises. At the same time, he warned that it is impossible to completely prevent another crisis.

Consequences of crisis still reverberate "Fortunately, policymakers succeeded in dealing with the situation better than many had feared they would," Fischer said in the Martin Feldstein Lecture at the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Unfortunately, we are still dealing with the consequences of the collapse and the steps necessary to deal with it."