Ben S. Bernanke > Quotes

“A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate — these are the folks who reap the largest rewards. The only way for even a putative meritocracy to hope to pass ethical muster, to be considered fair, is if those who are the luckiest in all of those respects also have the greatest responsibility to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their luck with others.”
― Ben Bernanke

“If we acted, nobody would thank us. But if we did not act, who would? 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.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Barney Frank wanted to know where the Fed was going to get the $85 billion to lend to AIG. I didn’t think this was the time to explain the mechanics of creating bank reserves. I said, “We have $800 billion,” referring to the pre-crisis size of the Fed’s balance sheet. Barney looked stunned. He didn’t see why the Fed should have that kind of money at its disposal.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“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.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“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.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“They also reminded me of a story Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher included in one of his speeches about the early nineteenth-century French diplomat Talleyrand and his archrival, Prince Metternich of Austria. When Talleyrand died, Metternich was reported to have said, “I wonder what he meant by that?” It seemed that no matter what I said or how plainly I said it, the markets tried to divine some hidden meaning.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Unlike my predecessor, I intended to use email. To avoid being deluged, I needed a pseudonym. Andy Jester, an IT specialist for the Board, suggested Edward Quince. He had noticed the word “Quince” on a software box and thought “Edward” had a nice ring. It seemed fine to me, so Edward Quince it was. The Board phone book listed him as a member of the security team. The pseudonym remained confidential while I was chairman. Whenever we released my emails—at congressional request or under the Freedom of Information Act, for example—we blacked out the name.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“If you’ve got a squirt gun in your pocket, you may have to take it out. If you’ve got a bazooka, and people know you’ve got it, you may not have to take it out,” he said. Sometimes market fears can be self-fulfilling, and a strong demonstration can avoid the worst outcomes. I was reminded of the military doctrine of “overwhelming force” as the way to prompt quick surrender and minimize casualties.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“If not interest rates or monetary policy, then what? Most research on the origins of the bubble has focused on three factors: mass psychology; financial innovations that reduced the incentive for careful lending;”
― Ben S. Bernanke, 21st Century Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19

“You have a neighbor, who smokes in bed. . . . Suppose he sets fire to his house,” I would say later in an interview. “You might say to yourself . . . ‘I’m not gonna call the fire department. Let his house burn down. It’s fine with me.’ But then, of course, what if your house is made of wood? And it’s right next door to his house? What if the whole town is made of wood?”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“They believed that anyone who worked hard to feed his or her family, no matter how humble the work, deserved respect.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“When my Princeton colleague Alan Blinder asked about my prospects of becoming Fed chairman, I downplayed the idea, saying the probability of that happening was “maybe 5 percent”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“My resolve against backstopping Fannie and Freddie didn’t last long.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Why did Trump’s message resonate?”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“she worried about whether I had the clothes and social skills to fit in.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Why would a strong bank pay the penalty rate if it didn’t have to?”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Nobody bought into that philosophy more than WaMu”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“His writings were often obscure,”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“it, we are just going to have to give it a try and see what happens.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Hank kept us up to date on his progress with Congress and”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“and another layer of decision making in the form of a council could inhibit rapid and effective responses to systemic risks.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“almost eighty years old but still sharp and active”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Nevertheless, the perceived stigma of borrowing from the discount window was and remains a formidable barrier to its effectiveness.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“I agreed, with reluctance.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“my mother was, though intelligent, not particularly intellectual.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“WE THOUGHT THAT our actions at the December 11 meeting would be roughly in sync with investor expectations. The market reaction quickly told us otherwise;”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“Ultimately, however, the administration’s plan included a watered-down version of Sheila’s idea.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“and thus disqualified from continuing as chairman.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“If banks won’t borrow because they fear that doing so might send a bad signal about their financial health, then having a lender of last resort does little good.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

“and I sat at his side.”
― Ben S. Bernanke, Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath