Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.
BEN BERNANKEThe Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.
More Ben Bernanke Quotes
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The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.
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Under current law, on January 1, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases.
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The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.
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The economic repercussions of a stock market crash depend less on the severity of the crash itself than on the response of economic policymakers, particularly central bankers.
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The crisis in Europe has affected the US economy by acting as a drag on our exports, weighing on business and consumer confidence and pressuring US financial markets and institutions.
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It’s the price of success: people start to think you’re omnipotent.
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The risk exists that, with aggregate demand exhibiting considerable momentum, output could overshoot its sustainable path, leading ultimately in the absence of countervailing monetary policy action to further upward pressure on inflation.
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The crisis and recession have led to very low interest rates, it is true, but these events have also destroyed jobs, hamstrung economic growth and led to sharp declines in the values of many homes and businesses.
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With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly.
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Although low inflation is generally good, inflation that is too low can pose risks to the economy – especially when the economy is struggling.
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Both humanity’s capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history.
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We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.
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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.
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In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.
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September and October of 2008 was the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression.
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Importantly, in the 1930s, in the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, despite its mandate, was quite passive and, as a result, financial crisis became very severe, lasted essentially from 1929 to 1933.
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A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous ‘helicopter drop’ of money.
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It must be awfully frustrating to get a small raise at work and then have it all eaten by a higher cost of commuting.
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Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.
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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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Education – lifelong education for everyone – from toddlers to workers well advanced in their careers – is indeed an excellent investment for individuals and society as a whole.
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The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so.
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I assure this committee that, if I am confirmed, I will be strictly independent of all political influences… essential to that institution’s ability to function effectively and achieve its mandated objectives.
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[Virtual Currencies] may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations Promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.
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We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s going to drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though.
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If I am confirmed, I am confident that my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee and I will maintain the focus on long-term price stability as monetary policy’s greatest contribution to general economic prosperity and maximum employment.
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