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

Ben Bernanke

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More quotes by Ben Bernanke

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

I don't think that Chinese ownership of U.S. assets is so large as to put our country at risk economically.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Economics is a very difficult subject. I've compared it to trying to learn how to repair a car when the engine is running.