Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernankeis an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis. Before becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth13 December 1953
CityAugusta, GA
CountryUnited States of America
Although the U.S. economy has managed modest real growth through 2002 and into 2003, most economists agree that a strong and well-balanced recovery will require a greater contribution from the business sector, in the form of increased capital investment and hiring,
Although I expect policy to follow the usual gradualist pattern, the pace of tightening will of necessity respond to evolving economic conditions, particularly the strength of the ongoing recovery in the labor market and developments on the inflation front,
There's always the possibility that, if there's sufficient uncertainty that we may choose to pause simply to gain more information, to learn better what the true risks are and how the economy's actually evolving.
As we look ahead, core inflation appears likely to remain in the zone of price stability during the remainder of 2004 and into 2005,
As you know, in the latter part of 2008 and early 2009, the Federal Reserve took extraordinary steps to provide liquidity and support credit market functioning, including the establishment of a number of emergency lending facilities and the creation or extension of currency swap agreements with 14 central banks around the world.
According to government ethics rules ... it is permissible for a retired (Fed) governor to speak in public about the economy so long as he or she does not divulge confidential information. I have no indication that he has violated that rule.
According to government ethics rules and FOMC rules, it is permissible for a retired governor to speak in public about the economy, so long as he or she does not divulge confidential information. I have no indication that he has violated that rule.
A collapse in U.S. stock prices certainly would cause a lot of white knuckles on Wall Street.
As long as there's not permanent damage to our energy infrastructure, the effects on the overall economy should be fairly modest.
As long as we find that the energy impact is only temporary ... my guess is that the effects on the overall economy will be fairly modest.
A.I.G. was even larger than Lehman, with a substantial presence in derivatives and debt markets, as well as in insurance markets.
There is of course the direct impact of the shutting down of the U.S. economy, the loss of several hundred thousand jobs at least, and reduced output production in the Gulf,
A very important factor is the fact that inflation expectations are well-controlled and well-contained, which means that the Federal Reserve, unlike the 70s, doesn't have to react violently in terms of raising interest rates to contain the second- and third-round inflationary impacts. So I remain pretty optimistic about the economy,
At some point in the future, the committee may decide to take no action at one or more meetings in the interest of allowing more time to receive information relevant to the outlook.