“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.”

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.

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.

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.

I generally leave the details of fiscal programs to the Administration and Congress. That’s really their area of authority and responsibility, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to second guess.

One might as well try to perform brain surgery with a sledgehammer.

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.

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

The amount of currency in circulation is not changing. The money supply is not changing in any significant way.

If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.

In fact, the world needs more nerds.

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

The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.

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.

If you are asking me if I would advocate that the Chinese go to greater flexibility in their exchange rate, I certainly would.

I don’t fully understand movements in the gold price.

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.

The family is the essential presence, the thing that never leaves you, even if you find you have to leave it.

We face an essential need to reach a definition of terrorism that will enjoy wide international agreement, thus enabling international operations against terrorist organizations.

History is various and sinuous and no essential part of the human spirit is ever wholly absent from it.

There is nothing more guaranteed to reduce a man to the essentials than to live beneath the sky.

The essential thing is to run period! And to do it for a long time and consistently and then everything will take care of itself.

For those that endure until spring, existence is reduced to its elegant essentials.

To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom.

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one’s own prose.