Ben Bernanke Quotes
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If you are asking me if I would advocate that the Chinese go to greater flexibility in their exchange rate, I certainly would.
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Congress had made clear that it has affirmed the principle of keeping banking and commerce separate. This loophole ... circumvents that principle. If Congress wants to revisit banking and commerce, that's their prerogative but it doesn't seem a good approach to allow a loophole in which that distinction breaks down.
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Central bankers got it right in the United States in 1987 when they avoided deflationary pressures as well as serious trouble in the banking system.
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This step would in no way reduce the importance of maximum employment as a policy goal, ... In any case, I assure this committee that if I am confirmed, I will take no precipitate steps in the direction of quantifying the definition of long-run price stability. This matter requires further study at the Federal Reserve as well as extensive discussion and consultation.
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If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years.
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One may aspire to succeed Chairman Greenspan but it will not be possible to replace him.
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The public has shown confidence that any increases in inflation will be temporary and that, in the long run, inflation will remain low.
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I will make continuity with the policies and policy strategies of the Greenspan Fed a top priority.
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As we try to make the financial system safer, we must inevitably confront the problem of moral hazard.
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Equally important, stable prices allow people to rely on the dollar as a measure of value when making long-term contracts, engaging in long-term planning or lending for long periods.
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If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.
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I don't see much evidence of an equity bubble.
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Our financial system is so complicated and so interactive - so many different markets in different countries and so many sets of rules.
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It is not the responsibility of the Federal Bank - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their decisions.
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Under constrained discretion, the central bank is free to do its best to stabilize output and employment in the face of short-run disturbances, with the appropriate caution born of our imperfect knowledge of the economy and of the effects of policy (this is the 'discretion' part of constrained discretion).
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The Federal Reserve Act requires the Federal Reserve to report annually on its operations and to publish its balance sheet weekly.
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Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand.
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The economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run, we are all dead. If he were around today he might say that, in the long run, we are all on Social Security and Medicare.
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Some influential voices of the time argued that by accepting higher inflation, policy-makers could bring about a permanently lower rate of unemployment.
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While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.
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The children of the unemployed achieve less in school and appear to have reduced long-term earnings prospects.
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The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.
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The Federal Reserve has always recognized the importance of allowing markets to work, and government oversight of financial firms will never be fully effective without the aid of strong market discipline.
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Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services.