Quote

Economics is a highly sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future, not so much.

Ben Bernanke

Change background

T

T

T

Change font

More quotes by Ben Bernanke

It takes about two and a half percent growth just to keep unemployment stable.

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.

With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly.

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

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

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

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.

Education - lifelong education for everyone - from toddlers to workers well advanced in their careers - is indeed an excellent investment for individuals and society as a whole.

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.

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

In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels.

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