Latest Speech

Monetary Policy Going Forward (Citing Bagehot, Bernanke and Babe Laufenberg) Remarks before the Greater Houston Partnership Houston, Texas September 1, 2010 "If the fiscal and regulatory authorities are able to dispel the angst that they are reportedly causing, further accommodation may not be needed because the liquidity that has been built up on corporate balance sheets and in the excess reserves of banks might then be released into the economy and spur job creation."

Other Recent Speeches

Random Refereeing: How Uncertainty Hinders Economic Growth (With Reference to Lucky Puppies, Pepper...and Salt, Lawrence Summers and Thomas Jefferson)
Remarks before the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
San Antonio, Texas
July 29, 2010
"In whatever realm and whatever form, excessive uncertainty is the enemy of economic growth. As Ben Bernanke wrote in 1980, the 'resolution of uncertainty' can lead to '[a business] investment boom.' It follows, then, that if and as regulators and legislators provide more clarity, a major roadblock to economic growth will be removed."

Financial Reform or Financial Dementia?
Remarks at the SW Graduate School of Banking 53rd Annual Keynote Address and Banquet
Dallas, Texas
June 3, 2010
"Let me make my sentiments clear: It is my view that, by propping up deeply troubled big banks, authorities have eroded market discipline in the financial system."

Minsky Moments and Financial Regulatory Reform
Remarks before the 19th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the U.S. and World Economies
New York City
April 14, 2010
"I think the disagreeable but sound thing to do regarding institutions that are TBTF is to dismantle them over time into institutions that can be prudently managed and regulated across borders. And this should be done before the next financial crisis, because we now know it surely cannot be done in the middle of a crisis."

Where We Go from Here: The Crisis and Beyond (With Reference to P. G. Wodehouse, John Kenneth Galbraith, Alan Greenspan and an Unnamed Eller College Student)
Remarks before the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
March 30, 2010
"Generally, the data indicate that we will move down the field this year at about a 3 percent clip. It is less than we had grown accustomed to in the heyday before the crisis, and it may not result in as rapid a reduction in unemployment as we would like."

Lessons Learned, Convictions Confirmed
Remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations
New York City
March 3, 2010
"In theory, the Fed’s monetary policy and regulatory functions are separate. In practice, they are anything but—rather, it is a symbiotic relationship. The past two years have highlighted the interconnections of monetary and regulatory policy: Monetary policy depends upon regulation that ensures the soundness of financial institutions."

Roadblocks to Recovery (With Apologies to W. H. Auden and Gershon Bleichröder)
Remarks before the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth
Dallas, Texas
February 10, 2010
"While it appears urgent, if not agreeable, to use massive public spending to stimulate an economy under duress, an economy cannot sustain long-term growth under the weight of significant fiscal burdens."

Risks to Sustained Economic Recovery (With Lessons Learned from Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt)
Remarks before the Annual Meeting of the Waco Business League
Waco, Texas
January 12, 2010
"If the Congress is not careful and ends up where it is going in tampering with the independence of the Federal Reserve, it will indeed lead us down the path to the politicization of the central bank of the world’s greatest economy, putting the United States on a road that leads directly to economic ruin."

Digits and Widgets (With Reference to a Wise Mother, the Golden Book Encyclopedia, Winston Churchill and Hunter Lawrence)
Remarks before the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s 4th Annual State of Education in Austin Conference
Austin, Texas
December 8, 2009
"In the world of “superfine processes” of the Knowledge Age, digits are the new widgets. The brain is to the Knowledge Age and the mastery of digits what the engine was to the Manufacturing Age and the management of widgets. Education is the steam and the oil and the gas that propel that engine. The speed at which we move our economy forward from this point onward will depend on how well we educate our children."

Paradise Lost: Addressing ‘Too Big to Fail’ (With Reference to John Milton and Irving Kristol)
Remarks before the Cato Institute’s 27th Annual Monetary Conference
Washington, D.C.
November 19, 2009
"In the words of Milton, I would say that regulation should be designed to enable financial institutions to be 'sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.'"

More 2009 Speeches»