Frases de Ben Bernanke

„La lección de la historia es que no se consigue una recuperación económica sostenida mientras el sistema financiero está en crisis.“

—  Ben Bernanke

„Es el precio del éxito: la gente empieza a pensar que eres omnipotente.“

—  Ben Bernanke

„Soy un aficionado a los temas de la Gran Depresión, de la misma forma en que algunas personas son aficionados a los temas de la Guerra Civil. Las cuestiones planteadas por la Depresión, y sus lecciones, siguen siendo importantes hoy.“

—  Ben Bernanke

En el año 2000.

„Si quieres entender la geología, estudias los terremotos. Si quieres entender la economía, estudias la Gran Depresión. Si quieres entender de economía, estudias la mayor calamidad que ha golpeado las economías de los EE. UU. y del mundo.“

—  Ben Bernanke

En 1983, a su compañero de estudios, Mark Gertler, tras preguntarle por su interés en el estudio de la Gran Depresión.
Fuente: Long Study of Great Depression Has Shaped Bernanke's Views http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB113392265577715881. Wall Street Journal, 7 de diciembre de 2005.

„A pesar de que una inflación baja es generalmente buena, una inflación demasiado baja puede presentar riesgos para la economía -especialmente cuando la economía está en problemas.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Fuente: Aiding the economy: What the Fed did and why http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/03/AR2010110307693.html. The Washington Post, 4 de noviembre de 2010.

„Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve System. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.“

—  Ben Bernanke

"Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke at the Conference to Honor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois," http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021108/default.htm federalreserve.gov (2002-11-08)
Commenting to Milton Friedman's public statement that the Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve Bank

„We did stop the meltdown. We avoided what would have been, I think, a collapse of the global financial system. That was obviously a good thing. But one thing that I was always sure of and the Federal Reserve was always sure of was that a collapse of some of these big financial firms was going to have very serious collateral consequences. There were people arguing even as late as September 2008, “Well, why don't you just let the firms collapse? There is a system that can take care of it: bankruptcy. Why don't you let them fail?” We never thought that was a good option. Particularly, if the whole system had collapsed, we would have had extraordinarily serious consequences.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Lecture 3: The Federal Reserve's Response to the Financial Crisis
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis (2012)

„It was a global depression, had many causes, the whole story requires you to look at the whole international system. But policy errors in United States, as well as abroad, did play an important role. And in particular as I said, the Federal Reserve failed in this first challenge in both parts of its mission. It did not use monetary policy aggressively to prevent deflation and the collapse in the economy, so it failed in its economic stability function. And it didn't adequately perform its function as lender of last resort allowing many bank failures and a resulting contraction in credit and also with the money supply. So, in that respect, again, the Fed did not fulfill its intended mission.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Lecture 1: Origins and Mission of the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis (2012)

„There’s no denying that a collapse in stock prices today would pose serious macroeconomic challenges for the United States. Consumer spending would slow, and the U. S. economy would become less of a magnet for foreign investors. Economic growth, which in any case has recently been at unsustainable levels, would decline somewhat. History proves, however, that a smart central bank can protect the economy and the financial sector from the nastier side effects of a stock market collapse.“

—  Ben Bernanke

"A Crash Course for Central Bankers," http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3272 Foreign Policy (September/October 2000)

„Obviously, based on the crisis and what happened and the effects that we're still feeling, it's now clear that maintaining financial stability is just as an important a responsibility as monetary and economic stability. And indeed, this is, you know, very much a return to the—where the Fed came from in the beginning. Remember the reason that Fed was created was to try to reduce the incidents of financial panics, so financial stability was the original goal of creation of the Fed. So now we sort of come full circle.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Lecture 4: The Aftermath of the Crisis
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis (2012)

„I want to make sure you keep your eyes on the ball, that is, the two basic missions of a central bank. The first is maintaining macroeconomic stability: maintaining stable growth and keeping inflation low and stable. The principal policy tool for maintaining macroeconomic stability is monetary policy. In normal times, the Fed and other central banks use open market operations—purchases and sales of securities in markets—to move interest rates up or down, and in doing so try to create a more stable macroeconomic environment.
The second part of a central bank's mission is maintaining financial stability. Central banks are focused on trying to ensure that the financial system functions properly, and in particular, they want to prevent, if possible, and if not, to mitigate the effects of a financial crisis or a financial panic.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Lecture 2: The Federal Reserve after World War II
The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis (2012)

„To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.“

—  Ben Bernanke

Speech given on Apr. 7, 2010 to the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, "Economic Challenges: Past, Present and Future" http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20100407a.pdf. (See pages 13-14 of the speech transcript).

„House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals, including robust growth in jobs and incomes, low mortgage rates, steady rates of household formation, and factors that limit the expansion of housing supply in some areas.“

—  Ben Bernanke

October 20, 2005 http://www.house.gov/jec/hearings/testimony/109/10-20-05bernanke.pdf, in testimony to Congress's Joint Economic Committee.

„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. However, careful economic analysis does have one important benefit, which is that it can help kill ideas that are completely logically inconsistent or wildly at variance with the data. This insight covers at least 90 percent of proposed economic policies.“

—  Ben Bernanke

The Ten Suggestions http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20130602a.htm. Speech given at Baccalaureate Ceremony at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, June 2, 2013.

„The economic repercussions of a stock market crash depend less on the severity of the crash itself than on the response of economic policymakers, particularly central bankers.“

—  Ben Bernanke

"A Crash Course for Central Bankers," Foreign Policy (September/October 2000)