To me, the greatest asset of the Fed is the people. We have a tremendously dedicated staff... They feel proud to work for the Fed because this is such a competent, professional and well-respected organization.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It's a technical, fairly difficult job that has no particular political connotations, so I doubt there are any big campaign contributors dying to be on the Fed. And remember, it doesn't pay very well, certainly by Republican standards.
I felt that the Fed had always been the agency that picked up the pieces when there was a financial crisis, and it was invented to do exactly that.
The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs.
The Fed is the major U.S. firefighter. It's not the Treasury. It's not the Congress. We certainly saw that vividly in 2008.
There's no other job in public life that is like chairman of the Fed.
The Fed's policy choices can always be debated, but the quality and commitment of the Federal Reserve as a public institution is second to none, and I am proud to lead it.
The Fed's independence is critical.
The Fed contributed to the financial crisis, keeping interest rates too low for too long. I give them credit for responding and stabilizing the economy and the financial sector during the crisis. But then they tried to do too much with quantitative easing that went on forever, just dramatically exploding their balance sheets.
The organization of the government itself is something which we ought to examine in a more self-conscious way - the Federal Reserve and the Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The mission that each of them has is mainly economic but should be informed by good organizational practices.
The Fed is the biggest enemy of this economy. In fact, Ben Bernanke, as far as I'm concerned, he's public enemy No. 1. We're never going to have a recovery while this guy's in charge.