A Year-End Wrap-Up of the Economy and a Peek Ahead
Remarks before the Longview Rotary Club
Longview, Texas
December 19, 2006
"I do not agree with pundits who argue about whether we can engineer a 'soft landing.' 'Landing' implies stopping. I prefer to say that the Fed’s job is to provide the monetary conditions necessary to pilot our economy at a comfortable cruising altitude and speed while preventing the engine from overheating with inflation. As we look to 2007, I consider this objective to be within reach." 

Is German Economic Decline Exaggerated or Inevitable?
Remarks before the the American Academy
Berlin, Germany
November 20, 2006
"Persistence in pursuing economic reform will solve the problems that threaten Germany's future. Germany must 'press on' with needed reforms to its laws and to its attitudes toward competition and the pursuit of excellence."

The Extended Importance of the Euro
Remarks before the European Banking Congress
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
November 17, 2006
"While the ECB has delivered a currency that retains its purchasing power at least as well as the dollar, there are at least three reasons why the euro is unlikely to displace the dollar as the dominant international currency in the near term. First, the growth prospects of the euro area. Second, the uniqueness of EMU. Third, the benefits of incumbency."

Confessions of a Data Dependent
Remarks before the New York Association for Business Economics
New York
November 2, 2006
"Globalization brings new influences into the Fed's navigation calculations to determine the best flight path for the U.S. economy. To determine that course ... we must develop a better understanding of the new forces exerting themselves on the aircraft we have been charged with flying. That aircraft no longer flies solely in domestic space, affected soley by domestic factors. Rather, it flies all over the world, requiring more sophisticated navigation instruments to monitor changing global and domestic economic conditions, enabling us to pilot the craft safely and efficiently."

Remarks Upon Accepting the Service to Democracy Award and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal
Dallas, Texas
October 18, 2006
"To simply know that you and the American Assembly feel that I and my colleagues in public service have lived a life worth living and are doing good things worth continuing to do is the truest honor of all."

Monetary Policymaking in a Globalized World
Remarks at the HSBC Global Investment Seminar
London
October 10, 2006
"My point is simply that the committee’s wisdom would be enhanced, and the economy would benefit, from having analytical tools to help us build more practicable models than what we currently have to guide our thinking as we make monetary policy in a complicated, reconfigured, globalized world."

The Current State of the U.S. and Mexican Economies: Where Do We Go From Here?
Remarks at a Policy Forum hosted by the El Paso Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Monterrey Branch of the Banco de México
Monterrey, N.L., México
September 25, 2006
Speech in Spanish
"As I sit at the FOMC table, I continue to fret more about inflation than I do about growth. While I am well aware of the risks to economic growth, the history of inverted yield curves, and the ever present possibility of exogenous shocks in a politically hazardous world, the “balance of risk,” in my book, is still tilted to the inflation side of the equation."

A Primer on Inflation (with Comments on Real Estate in the Metroplex)
Remarks at the 6th Annual Real Estate Symposium, North Dallas Chamber of Commerce
Dallas, Texas
August 30, 2006
"Our current analysis points to an economy at a crossroads. High energy prices, rising interest rates and the slowdown in a red-hot housing market have taken some of the steam out of what had been a fairly robust expansion. At the same time, our current inflation indicators are not presently as well behaved as I would like them to be. Central bankers are always concerned when inflation starts to rear its ugly head. We know from experience that once inflation gains momentum, it becomes harder and harder to stop." 

The Federal Reserve and Texas
Remarks at a Community Luncheon Hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
San Antonio, Texas
August 29, 2006
"The business of getting it right on inflation is not an easy task. I keep a close eye on all of the inflation measures—especially now, when high energy prices and utility bills are putting pressure on many businesses to raise prices. But I put extra weight on the Trimmed-Mean PCE Deflator because I believe it provides a more realistic picture of the price pressures in the economy and more accurately measures what conditions the operations of our economy."  

An Update on the Status of the Economy and Its Implications for Monetary Policy
Remarks for the Annual Joint Luncheon of Commercial Real Estate Women Dallas and North Texas Certified Commercial Investment Members
Dallas, Texas
August 16, 2006
"In determining future policy, my colleagues and I will watch and listen and “taste” the indicators carefully as they come in. And, as we said at the conclusion of our last FOMC meeting, we will act accordingly. If anybody tells you with absolute conviction that the Fed is done raising interest rates or with equal conviction that they have only paused and will raise rates more starting in September or October, remind yourself that at best—and I’m being generous here—they are only guessing."  

The Economy at Midyear
Remarks at a Community Luncheon hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, San Antonio Branch
Corpus Christi, Texas
June 14, 2006
"Against the background of sustained high prices for oil and gasoline and the inevitable propensity of sellers of goods and services to try to pass on cost increases, the brow begins to furrow in contemplating the inflation picture. On the one hand, I know that the Trimmed Mean PCE Deflator is running at a rate that is just too corrosive to be accepted by a virtuous central banker. But I also know, having been party to it, of the incremental tightenings to which we have been subjecting the base interest rate. And I am fully aware that there is a lag between the time we tighten the valve and the time the impact of that tightening is felt."  

Globalization's Impact on U.S. Growth and Inflation
Remarks before the Dallas Assembly
Dallas, Texas
May 22, 2006
"Our globalizing economy is not a vintage car. It is more like a 2006 BMW Z4 roadster, fully equipped and Bluetooth enabled. It is a very complex, highly integrated, technologically advanced and brilliantly engineered vehicle that just cannot help exceeding the posted speed limit."  

To the Trustees of America's Economic Potential
Spring 2006 Commencement Address
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
May 20, 2006
"Today, China and India, nanotechnology, the Internet and the human genome project, the BlackBerry and the iPod are the railroads of the 21st century that are changing the landscape of history. They are propelling us forward into a world in which whatever was optimal before is no longer so."  

Globalization and the Latin Perspective (with Reference to Las Meninas)
Remarks at the Central Bank of Argentina
Buenos Aires
April 19, 2006
Speech in Spanish
"My business contacts talk and act as if the globalization now under way will bring another decade of intense competition. This hothouse will enable—perhaps even force—businesses to keep productivity growth in the range we have enjoyed since the mid-1990s—hopefully, for many years to come. If labor productivity growth can stay near 3 percent, monetary policy can accommodate relatively faster growth without igniting inflation."  

Racing to the Top: How Global Competition Disciplines Public Policy
Remarks before the Dallas Friday Group
Dallas, Texas
April 11, 2006
Video excerpt [WMV 2.6M 00:01:28]
"Competition brings benefits to the public sector the same way it does the private sector. Because factors of production are increasingly mobile in an era of globalization, governments vie to gain and hold onto them. Mobile factors will flee economies that burden them with high taxes, excessive regulation and capricious administration. They gravitate toward countries that offer the best opportunities to increase profits or paychecks. The economic benefits of productive factors give nations strong incentives to maintain or adopt better economic policies."  

A Perspective on Mexico
Remarks for the Jose Cuervo Tequila Talk
Institute of the Americas
La Jolla, California
April 5, 2006
Spanglish | español
"For Mexico and the U.S. states along its border, the stakes are high. Geographic proximity to the United States and ease of transport are key aspects of Mexico’s comparative advantage vis-à-vis nations in Asia and Eastern Europe. A loss of competitiveness in Mexico is a loss for the entire border economy, where so much of our growth is linked to expansion on the more populous Mexican side. We must pay greater attention to the changes in infrastructure, regulations and other areas that are needed to maximize mutual economic benefit from trade."  

A New Perspective on Policy
2006 Streich Family Lectureship on Free Enterprise
Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas
April 4, 2006
"Globalization is almost surely part of the explanation of the decline in inflation and output volatility that we've seen in many countries in recent years."  

Asia, Trade Deficits and the Health of the U.S. Economy
Remarks before the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce
Dallas, Texas
February 23, 2006
"As long as the Federal Reserve does its job of holding inflation at bay, and as long as our political leaders resist protectionism and let the private sector get on with its work, we will remain the world’s predominant economic machine."  

Trade Deficits and the Health of the U.S. Economy
Remarks before the Little Rock Rotary Club
Little Rock
February 14, 2006
"If we create the conditions to let our private sector do what it does by its very nature—constantly adapt and reposition itself—then we have nothing to fear from competition from our trading partners, including those with whom we presently run big deficits."  

The United States: Still the Growth Engine for the World Economy?
Remarks at the Institute of Economic Affairs’ 23rd Annual State of the Economy Conference
London
February 6, 2006
"I posit that China and India and the new players will enhance American productivity and abet U.S. growth, not threaten it. These rising economies will provide sources of inputs American companies can use to drive down costs and increase variety for consumers. They will increase competition—which is good. Competition sharpens the wits and improves muscle tone."  

Excerpts from Remarks on the Process of Creative Destruction to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Worth Petroleum Club, Leaders in Government Series
Fort Worth, Texas
January 19, 2006
"There is a dynamic tension in Japan today. Prime Minister Koizumi has taken on the old political dinosaurs. Young entrepreneurs gathered in the new office buildings in the Roppongi Hills area of Tokyo and elsewhere have challenged the tightly interwoven culture of the old Japanese corporate hierarchy. Foreign investment has positioned itself for a sea change in Japan’s direction.  

Coping with Globalization's Impact on Monetary Policy
Remarks for the National Association for Business Economics Panel Discussion at the 2006 Allied Social Science Associations Meeting
Boston, Massachusetts
January 6, 2006
"By spurring productivity and fomenting tectonic economic changes, globalization has acted as a tailwind for the Fed’s—and other central banks’—efforts to hold down inflation. I believe the Federal Reserve has been able to contain inflation with faster growth than would have been possible in the absence of globalization. In short, globalization has made the Fed’s job easier over the past few years"