black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Ben Bernanke

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

Brain might Trying
Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.
BEN BERNANKE

Banking Banks Commercial Investment
The impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained.
BEN BERNANKE

Financial Impact Problem
The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.
BEN BERNANKE

Federal Forecasting Recession Reserve
…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
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
Both humanity’s capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history.
BEN BERNANKE

Humanity Incentives Today
The American people are among the most productive in the world. We have the best technologies. We have – great universities. We have entrepreneurs.
BEN BERNANKE

Entrepreneur People Technology World
The basic prescription for preventing deflation is therefore straightforward, at least in principle: Use monetary and fiscal policy as needed to support aggregate spending.
BEN BERNANKE

Business Principle Support
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
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.
BEN BERNANKE

Imagination Thinking Years
I come from Main Street, from a small town that’s really depressed.
BEN BERNANKE

Main Street Small Towns
Achieving price stability is not only important in itself, it is also central to attaining the Federal Reserve’s other mandate objectives of maximum sustainable employment and moderate long-term interest rates.
BEN BERNANKE

Employment Important Long
I don’t see much evidence of an equity bubble.
BEN BERNANKE

Bubbles Equity Evidence
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
House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals.
BEN BERNANKE

Fundamental Past Strong Years
Nobody really understands gold prices and I don’t pretend to understand them either.
BEN BERNANKE

Gold Gold Price
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
I don’t fully understand movements in the gold price.
BEN BERNANKE

Gold Movement 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
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

Committee Country Moving
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 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
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
A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous ‘helicopter drop’ of money.
BEN BERNANKE

Cutting Helicopters Milton
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
The amount of currency in circulation is not changing. The money supply is not changing in any significant way.
BEN BERNANKE

Currency Significant Way

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ben Bernanke Quotes