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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.

Ben Bernanke

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

Lessons Long Recovery
Economics is a very difficult subject. I’ve compared it to trying to learn how to repair a car when the engine is running.
BEN BERNANKE

Car Running Trying
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Acting Country Financial Lace
Every effort needs to be made to try and offset the costs of Katrina and Rita by reductions in other government programs, especially those that are wasteful, duplicative and ineffective.
BEN BERNANKE

Effort Government Trying
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

Long might Running
The more important reason is that the research itself provides an important long-run perspective on the issues that we face on a day-to-day basis.
BEN BERNANKE

Issues Perspective Running
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

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

Cutting Important Law
It’s true that the Federal Reserve faces a lot of political pressure and is unpopular in many circles.
BEN BERNANKE

Circles Political Pressure
Over the years, the U.S. economy has shown a remarkable ability to absorb shocks of all kinds, to recover, and to continue to grow.
BEN BERNANKE

Kind Success Years
Among the largest banks, the capital ratios remain good and I don’t expect any serious problems . . . . among the large, internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system.
BEN BERNANKE

Banking Ratio Serious
Indeed, in general, healthy investment returns cannot be sustained in a weak economy, and of course it is difficult to save for retirement or other goals without the income from a job.
BEN BERNANKE

Goal Job Retirement
We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.
BEN BERNANKE

Economy Financial Significant
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 BERNANKE

Choices Fields Past
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Important Mean Strong
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

Delinquency Rising Years
Although low inflation is generally good, inflation that is too low can pose risks to the economy – especially when the economy is struggling.
BEN BERNANKE

Economy Risk Struggle
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Employment Focus Long
If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.
BEN BERNANKE

Crash Doe Wall
I don’t fully understand movements in the gold price.
BEN BERNANKE

Gold Movement Price
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Bankers Crash Economics
If you are not happy with yourself, even the loftiest achievements won’t bring you much satisfaction.
BEN BERNANKE

Achievement Not Happy Satisfaction
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

Country Stock Street Wall White
In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.
BEN BERNANKE

Communication Formal
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Demand Path Risk
The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so.
BEN BERNANKE

Months Past Risk
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Employment House Thinking

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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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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