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

Ben Bernanke

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More quotes by Ben Bernanke

The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.

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.

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

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.

The American people are among the most productive in the world. We have the best technologies. We have - great universities. We have entrepreneurs.

The economic repercussions of a stock market crash depend less on the severity of the crash itself than on the response of economic policymakers, particularly central bankers.

The Federal Reserve will not monetize the debt.

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.

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.

I am very proud of my nerd-dom.

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.

Speaking as somebody who has been happily married for 35 years, I can't imagine any choice more consequential for a lifelong journey than the choice of a traveling companion.

I don't see much evidence of an equity bubble.

A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman's famous 'helicopter drop' of money.