“If you are not happy with yourself, even the loftiest achievements won’t bring you much satisfaction.”

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.

Under current law, on January 1, 2013, there’s going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases.

The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.

The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.

We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

I served seven years as the chair of the Princeton economics department where I had responsibility for major policy decisions, such as whether to serve bagels or doughnuts at the department coffee hour.

[Virtual Currencies] may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations Promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.

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

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.

The GSEs are adequately capitalized. They are in no danger of failing.

Speaking as somebody who has been happily married for 35 years, I can’t imagine any choice more consequential for a lifelong journey than the choice of a traveling companion.

Weaker currencies abroad mean a strong dollar, and a stronger dollar, together with a weak global environment, is a drag on the U.S. econom.

If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes. If you want to understand the economy, study the Depression.

If your uniform isn’t dirty, you haven’t been in the game.

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.

Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks they know where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination.