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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

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Importantly, In The 1930s,

Ben Bernanke

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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.

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Great Depression

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The Basic Prescription For Preventing Deflation Is Therefore Straightforward, At Least In Principle: Use Monetary And Fiscal Policy As Needed To Support Aggregate Spending, In A Manner As Nearly Consistent As Possible With Full Utilization Of Economic Resources And Low And Stable Inflation. In Other Words, The Best Way To Get Out Of Trouble Is Not To Get Into It In The First Place.

It's True That The Federal Reserve Faces A Lot Of Political Pressure And Is Unpopular In Many Circles.

The Impact On The Broader Economy And Financial Markets Of The Problems In The Subprime Markets Seems Likely To Be Contained.

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How Much Would You Pay To Avoid A Second Depression?

Great Depression

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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.

The Sources Of Deflation Are Not A Mystery. Deflation Is In Almost All Cases A Side Effect Of A Collapse Of Aggregate Demand.. A Drop In Spending So Severe That Producers Must Cut Prices On An Ongoing Basis In Order To Find Buyers.

Our Mission, As Set Forth By The Congress Is A Critical One: To Preserve Price Stability, To Foster Maximum Sustainable Growth In Output And Employment, And To Promote A Stable And Efficient Financial System That Serves All Americans Well And Fairly.

The Lesson Of History Is That You Do Not Get A Sustained Economic Recovery As Long As The Financial System Is In Crisis.

If You Are Asking Me If I Would Advocate That The Chinese Go To Greater Flexibility In Their Exchange Rate, I Certainly Would.

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September And October Of 2008 Was The Worst Financial Crisis In Global History, Including The Great Depression.

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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. Flexible And Efficient Markets For Labor And Capital, An Entrepreneurial Tradition, And A General Willingness To Tolerate And Even Embrace Technological And Economic Change All Contribute To This Resiliency.

The Federal Reserve Will Not Monetize The Debt.

Federal Reserve

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.

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.

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.

Inflation Is Certainly Low And Stable And, Measured In Unemployment And Labour-market Slack, The Economy Has Made A Lot Of Progress. The Pace Of Growth Is Disappointingly Slow, Mostly Because Productivity Growth Has Been Very Slow, Which Is Not Really Something Amenable To Monetary Policy. It Comes From Changes In Technology, Changes In Worker Skills And A Variety Of Other Things, But Not Monetary Policy, In Particular.

The Benefit Of Appointing A Hawkish Central Banker Is The Increased Inflation-fighting Credibility That Such An Appointment Brings.

Nobody Really Understands Gold Prices And I Don't Pretend To Understand Them Either.

The Amount Of Currency In Circulation Is Not Changing. The Money Supply Is Not Changing In Any Significant Way.

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.

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.

Like Gold, U.s. Dollars Have Value Only To The Extent That They Are Strictly Limited In Supply. But 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. By Increasing The Number Of U.s. Dollars In Circulation, Or Even By Credibly Threatening To Do So, The U.s. Government Can Also Reduce The Value Of A Dollar In Terms Of Goods And Services, Which Is Equivalent To Raising The Prices In Dollars Of Those Goods And Services.

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The Crisis And Recession Have Led To Very Low Interest Rates, It Is True, But These Events Have Also Destroyed Jobs, Hamstrung Economic Growth And Led To Sharp Declines In The Values Of Many Homes And Businesses.

The Financial Crisis Appears To Be Mostly Behind Us, And The Economy Seems To Have Stabilized And Is Expanding Again.

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.

Great Depression

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.

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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.

There's No Denying That A Collapse In Stock Prices Today Would Pose Serious Macroeconomic Challenges For The United States. Consumer Spending Would Slow, And The U.s. Economy Would Become Less Of A Magnet For Foreign Investors. Economic Growth, Which In Any Case Has Recently Been At Unsustainable Levels, Would Decline Somewhat. History Proves, However, That A Smart Central Bank Can Protect The Economy And The Financial Sector From The Nastier Side Effects Of A Stock Market Collapse.

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