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I'm a strong-and-stable-dollar advocate, and the Fed has been moving dangerously away from that mission.

I will maintain the position that, long-term, a strong and dependable dollar is in the best interests of the United States while recognizing that, at times over the long-term, that may not be the case.

Well, I make a practice of not commenting on the role of the relative exchange value of our currency.

Since I was first nominated to serve as Treasury Secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others' hardships in order to earn a buck. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Of course I've already taken a very modest position on the monetary system, I do take the position that we should just end the Fed.

Now that I'm a civilian again, I can once more comment on economic and financial issues without my words being put under the microscope by Fed watchers.

Obviously, I haven't succeeded in defusing the political concerns about the Fed.

Part of my job is to make sense of all that I hear, and to retell it in a forceful way so that the decision-makers at Treasury can hear it. At least that's how I see it.

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.

I don't want to see the dollar strong because the rest of the world is crumbling. I would like to see the dollar strong because the Fed has said it wants it to be strong in the future.