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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 Bernanke

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

Brain might Trying
Nobody really understands gold prices and I don’t pretend to understand them either.
BEN BERNANKE

Gold Gold Price
The best approach here, if at all possible, is to use supervisory and regulatory methods to restrain undue risk-taking and to make sure the system is resilient in case an asset-price bubble bursts in the future.
BEN BERNANKE

Investing Risk Use
A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous ‘helicopter drop’ of money.
BEN BERNANKE

Cutting Helicopters Milton
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
The more guidance a central bank can provide the public about how policy is likely to evolve the greater the chance that market participants will make appropriate inferences.
BEN BERNANKE

Chance Guidance Inference
…the Federal Reserve has the capacity to operate in domestic money markets to maintain interest rates at a level consistent with our economic goals
BEN BERNANKE

Goal Investing Levels
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
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
The GSEs are adequately capitalized. They are in no danger of failing.
BEN BERNANKE

Capitalized Danger Failing
The financial crisis appears to be mostly behind us, and the economy seems to have stabilized and is expanding again.
BEN BERNANKE

Economy Expanding Financial
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Depression Financial Great Result
In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.
BEN BERNANKE

Communication Formal
I am very proud of my nerd-dom.
BEN BERNANKE

Doms Nerd Proud
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Coffee Responsibility Years
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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