Global experience shows that giving central banks independenc e to make monetary policy decisions that they think are in the best interests of the country and consistent with their mandates leads to lower inflation and more stable macroeconomic outcomes.

Janet Yellen

Categorized in : Politics

Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognize, with humility, that we don't have a monopoly on the truth.

Janet Yellen

listening-to-others humility graduation

I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity.

Janet Yellen

trends opportunity thinking

If it were possible to take interest rates into negative territory I would be voting for that.

Janet Yellen

voting would-be negative

For my own part, I did not see and did not appreciate what the risks were with securitization, the credit ratings agencies, the shadow banking system, the S.I.V.’s — I didn’t see any of that coming until it happened.

Janet Yellen

agency appreciate risk

In government institutions and in teaching, you need to inspire confidence. To achieve credibility, you have to very clearly explain what you are doing and why. The same principles apply to businesses.

Janet Yellen

government teaching inspire

To me, a wise and humane policy is occasionally to let inflation rise even when inflation is running above target.

Janet Yellen

target wise running

It slightly worries me that when people find a problem, they rush to judgment of what to do.

Janet Yellen

problem worry people

The past few decades of widening inequality can be summed up as significant income and wealth gains for those at the very top and stagnant living standards for the majority.

Janet Yellen

majority gains past

Will capitalist economies operate at full employment in the absence of routine intervention? Certainly not.

Janet Yellen

capitalist-economy routine employment

We do not interpret bitcoin's popularity as having a relationship with the public's view of the Federal Reserve's conduct of monetary policy

Janet Yellen

bitcoin popularity views

Long-term unemployment can make any worker progressively less employable, even after the economy strengthens.

Janet Yellen

economy unemployment long

I'm just opposed to a pure inflation-only mandate in which the only thing a central bank cares about is inflation and not employment.

Janet Yellen

inflation employment care

Inequality has risen to the point that it seems to me worthwhile for the U.S. to seriously consider taking the risk of making our economy more rewarding for more of the people.

Janet Yellen

economy risk people

My bottom line is that monetary policy should react to rising prices for houses or other assets only insofar as they affect the central bank's goal variables - output, employment, and inflation.

Janet Yellen

rising-prices goal house

The distribution of wealth is even more unequal than that of income. ...The wealthiest 5% of American households held 54% of all wealth reported in the 1989 survey. Their share rose to 61% in 2010 and reached 63% in 2013. By contrast, the rest of those in the top half of the wealth distribution families that in 2013 had a net worth between $81,000 and $1.9 million held 43% of wealth in 1989 and only 36% in 2013.

Janet Yellen

income half rose

In the long run, outsourcing is another form of trade that benefits the U.S. economy by giving us cheaper ways to do things.

Janet Yellen

running giving long

Productivity growth, however it occurs, has a disruptive side to it. In the short term, most things that contribute to productivity growth are very painful.

Janet Yellen

growth painful sides

Strapped by tight credit and plummeting sales, businesses have overhauled the way they manage supply chains, inventory, production practices, and staffing.

Janet Yellen

inventory practice way

The average net worth of the lower half of the distribution, representing 62 million households, was $11,000 in 2013. About one-fourth of these families reported zero wealth or negative net worth, and a significant fraction of those said they were "underwater" on their home mortgages, owing more than the value of the home. This $11,000 average is 50 percent lower than the average wealth of the lower half of families in 1989, adjusted for inflation.

Janet Yellen

zero home average

By some estimates, income and wealth inequality are near their highest levels in the past hundred years, much higher than the average during that time span and probably higher than for much of American history before then.

Janet Yellen

average past years