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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

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More quotes by Ben Bernanke

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

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.

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

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

If you are not happy with yourself, even the loftiest achievements won't bring you much satisfaction.

The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.

It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent.

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.

It's true that the Federal Reserve faces a lot of political pressure and is unpopular in many circles.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.

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.