Quotes from Ben S. Bernanke

Mankiw himself had ignited a short-lived media controversy by speaking favorably about outsourcing jobs to other countries

But we knew more shoes could drop.

Tim was operating with a very lean staff.

At the polite but firm request of the security team, I had not driven a car in seven months.

markets didn't have enough examples of Fed behavior in similar circumstances.

I thought of myself as a moderate Republican—liberal on social issues,

Inflation targeting, I argued, could help fill the information vacuum.

with the president having just been reelected, I could expect to be involved in new policy initiatives.

Wall Street and Main Street are interconnected and interdependent,

it is similar to the central bank balance sheets of other major industrial countries.

however, Greenspan remained firmly opposed.

we knew it wasn't going to happen unless Greenspan changed his views.

To help fill the gaps,

usually drafted with the help of Don

In terms of job security, I was moving in exactly the wrong direction: from a job with lifetime tenure, to a job as Federal Reserve governor that carried a fourteen-year term,

Making politically unpopular decisions for the long-run benefit of the country is the reason the Fed exists as a politically independent central bank. It was created for precisely this purpose: to do what must be done—what others cannot or will not do.

Fortunately, permanent staff members provided continuity.

Fannie and Freddie also spent some of their profits on lobbying and political contributions, cementing the cozy relationship

Poor Pat has not been informed of this yet,

leaving the overall size of its balance sheet unchanged.

I knew this award-giving was premature. I hadn't been in the job long enough to point to any real accomplishments.

at the request of Jean-Claude Trichet, I called a videoconference of the FOMC to discuss renewing

As a teenager, I could hardly wait to leave Dillon. But as I grew older,

we offered guidance, albeit vague, on our own expectations for monetary policy. We