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.Collection: Finance
I am particularly pleased to see that the Bendheim Center for Finance is thriving.Collection: Finance
The Fed's independence is critical.Collection: Independence
In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.Collection: Education
The best solution to income inequality is providing a high-quality education for everybody. In our highly technological, globalized economy, people without education will not be able to improve their economic situation.Collection: Education
Because a person has to be either working or looking for work to be counted as part of the labor force, an increase in the number of people too discouraged to continue their search for work would reduce the unemployment rate, all else being equal - but not for a positive reason.Collection: Positive
History has demonstrated time and again the inherent resilience and recuperative powers of the American economy.Collection: History
No economy can succeed without a high-quality workforce, particularly in an age of globalization and technical change.Collection: Age
Many foreclosed homes are neglected or abandoned, as legal proceedings or other factors delay their resale. Deteriorating or vacant properties can, in turn, directly affect the quality of life in a neighborhood, for example, by leading to increases in vandalism or crime.Collection: Legal
Clear communication is always important in central banking, but it can be especially important when economic conditions call for further policy stimulus but the policy rate is already at its effective lower bound.Collection: Communication
High levels of homeownership have been shown to foster greater involvement in school and civic organizations, higher graduation rates, and greater neighborhood stability.Collection: Graduation
I think most of us would agree that people who have, say, little formal schooling but labor honestly and diligently to help feed, clothe, and educate their families are deserving of greater respect - and help, if necessary - than many people who are superficially more successful.Collection: Respect
If two people always agree, one of them is redundant.
The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being.
In fact, the world needs more nerds.
Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year.
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.
Only a strong economy can create higher asset values and sustainably good returns for savers.
Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.
History proves... that a smart central bank can protect the economy and the financial sector from the nastier side effects of a stock market collapse.
Monetary policy is a blunt tool which certainly affects the distribution of income and wealth, although whether the net effect is to increase or reduce inequality is not clear.
I come from Main Street, from a small town that's really depressed.
Developments in financial markets can have broad economic effects felt by many outside the markets.
Deflation can be particularly dangerous when a financial system is shaky, with household and corporate balance sheets in poor shape and banks undercapitalized and heavily burdened with bad loans.
To be sure, the provision of liquidity alone can by no means solve the problems of credit risk and credit losses; but it can reduce liquidity premiums, help restore the confidence of investors, and thus promote stability.
If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes. If you want to understand the economy, study the Depression.
The movement toward a holistic approach to community development has been long in the making, but the housing crisis has motivated further progress.
Stronger regulation and supervision aimed at problems with underwriting practices and lenders' risk management would have been a more effective and surgical approach to constraining the housing bubble than a general increase in interest rates.
Monetary policy is not a panacea.
The Federal Reserve's job is to do the right thing, to take the long-run interest of the economy to heart, and that sometimes means being unpopular. But we have to do the right thing.
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.
I think one of the lessons of the Depression - and this is something that Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated - was that when orthodoxy fails, then you need to try new things. And he was very willing to try unorthodox approaches when the orthodox approach had shown that it was not adequate.
The Mexican debt crisis, Latin American debt crisis, the crises of the 1990s, the Wall Street stock market crash, and other events should have reminded us, and did remind us, that financial instability remains a concern, remains a problem.
The Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy's problems on its own.
In the future, financial firms of any type whose failure would pose a systemic risk must accept especially close regulatory scrutiny of their risk-taking.
As an educator myself, I understand the profound effect that good teachers and a quality education have on the lives of our young people.
Textbooks describe economics as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. That definition may be the 'what,' but it certainly is not the 'why.'
A little humility never hurts.
Building a rainy-day fund during good times may not be politically popular, but it can pay off during the bad times.
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.
The downturn following the collapse of Japan's so-called bubble economy of the 1980s was not as severe as the Great Depression.
My proposal that Fed governors should signal their commitment to public service by wearing Hawaiian shirts and Bermuda shorts has so far gone unheeded.
Fostering transparency and accountability at the Federal Reserve was one of my principal objectives when I became Chairman in February 2006.
Well, the U.S., of course, is the world's largest economy. It's about a quarter of the world's output. It's also home to many of the largest financial institutions and financial markets.
Home purchases that are very highly leveraged or unaffordable subject the borrower and lender to a great deal of risk. Moreover, even in a strong economy, unforeseen life events and risks in local real estate markets make highly leveraged borrowers vulnerable.
The banks have accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank.
The children of the unemployed achieve less in school and appear to have reduced long-term earnings prospects.
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.
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.
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.