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35 Transcendent Ben S. Bernanke Quotes

Ben Bernanke is an renowned American economist whom served two terms as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. With an education from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard College, Bernanke served as the 23rd Chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisers. Here are some of the most well known Bernanke quotes from his professional career.

“Achieving price stability is not only important in itself, it is also central to attaining the Federal Reserve’s other mandate objectives of maximum sustainable employment and moderate long-term interest rates.”

“As an educator myself, I understand the profound effect that good teachers and a quality education have on the lives of our young people.”

“As the joke about the MIT-Harvard divide went: A popular grocery store is situated about halfway between the two schools. A sign in front of the store advertised, “5 Cans of Soup for $1.” A student walks in and asks, “How much for 10 cans?” The clerk replies, “Are you from Harvard and can’t count or from MIT and can’t read?”

“Economists are criticized for not being able to predict the future, but, because the data are incomplete and subject to revision, we cannot even be sure what happened in the recent past. Noisy data make effective policymaking all the more difficult.”

“High levels of homeownership have been shown to foster greater involvement in school and civic organizations, higher graduation rates, and greater neighborhood stability.”

“History proves… that a smart central bank can protect the economy and the financial sector from the nastier side effects of a stock market collapse.”

“How much would you pay to avoid a second Depression?”

“I am confident that we will meet whatever challenges the future may bring.”

“I am very proud of my nerd-dom.”

“I got into economics because I wanted to make things better for the average person.”

“I had become a Great Depression buff in the way that other people are Civil War buffs, reading not only about the economics of the period but about the politics, sociology, and history as well.”

“I think policy is currently quite accommodative. I think it can remain quite accommodative for a while to come.”

“I wish I’d been omniscient and seen the crisis coming.”

“Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year.”

“If the fiscal cliff occurs, I don’t think the Federal Reserve has the tools to offset that event.”

“If two people always agree, one of them is redundant.”

“In any given month, a large number of workers are being hired or are leaving their current jobs, illustrating the dynamism of the U.S. labor market.”

“In fact, the world needs more nerds.”

“In many spheres of human endeavor, from science to business to education to economic policy, good decisions depend on good measurement.”

“It’s the price of success: people start to think you’re omnipotent.”

“Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand.”

“Monetary policy is not a panacea.”

“My interest is solely for the strength and recovery of the U.S. economy.”

“Not all information is beneficial.”

“Of course, economic forecasts must be revised when new information arrives and are thus necessarily provisional.”

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

“Quantitatively, outsourcing abroad simply cannot account for much of the recent weakness in the U.S. labor market and does not appear likely to be an important restraint to further recovery in employment.”

“The central bank needs to be able to make policy without short term political concerns.”

“The Fed is totally open.”

“The Federal Reserve will not monetize the debt.”

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

“The lesson of history is that you do not get a sustained economic recovery as long as the financial system is in crisis.”

“The more guidance a central bank can provide the public about how policy is likely to evolve the greater the chance that market participants will make appropriate inferences.”

“The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so.”

“They will make it through the storm.”

The following video highlights a rare interview with the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as he shares what his thoughts are on America’s financial system and what aided in its collapse.

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