I and others were mistaken early on in saying that the subprime crisis would be contained. The causal relationship between the housing problem and the broad financial system was very complex and difficult to predict.
BEN BERNANKEThe central bank needs to be able to make policy without short term political concerns.
More Ben Bernanke Quotes
-
-
We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.
BEN BERNANKE -
Under a cold turkey strategy, at each policy meeting the Federal Open Market Committee would make its best guess about where it ultimately wants the funds rate to be and would move to that rate in a single step.
BEN BERNANKE -
The Fed is totally open.
BEN BERNANKE -
Our mission, as set forth by the Congress is a critical one: to preserve price stability, to foster maximum sustainable growth in output and employment, and to promote a stable and efficient financial system that serves all Americans well and fairly.
BEN BERNANKE -
A gold standard doesn’t imply stability in the prices of the goods and services that people buy every day, it implies a stability in the price of gold itself.
BEN BERNANKE -
I don’t see much evidence of an equity bubble.
BEN BERNANKE -
A collapse in U.S. stock prices certainly would cause a lot of white knuckles on Wall Street. But what effect would it have on the broader U.S. economy? If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.
BEN BERNANKE -
In a manner as nearly consistent as possible with full utilization of economic resources and low and stable inflation. In other words, the best way to get out of trouble is not to get into it in the first place.
BEN BERNANKE -
Not all information is beneficial.
BEN BERNANKE -
The amount of currency in circulation is not changing. The money supply is not changing in any significant way.
BEN BERNANKE -
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.
BEN BERNANKE -
Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.
BEN BERNANKE -
While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.
BEN BERNANKE -
Nobody really understands gold prices and I don’t pretend to understand them either.
BEN BERNANKE -
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
BEN BERNANKE






