Ben Bernanke

The American people are among the most productive in the world. We have the best technologies. We have great universities. We have entrepreneurs. ”

As we try to make the financial system safer, we must inevitably confront the problem of moral hazard. ”

The role of liquidity in systemic events provides yet another reason why, in the future, a more system wide or macroprudential approach to regulation is needed. ”

Deflation can be particularly dangerous when a financial system is shaky, with household and corporate balance sheets in poor shape and banks undercapitalized and heavily burdened with bad loans. ”

China is growing very quickly and is clearly becoming an important player in the world economy. ”

If bankers become overly conservative in response to past lending mistakes - or if examiners force such behavior - it will hurt bankers' own long-term interests and the economy in general. ”

To the extent that bank panics interfere with normal flows of credit, they may affect the performance of the real economy. ”

I was a professor at Princeton University. And, in that capacity, I studied for many years the role of financial crisis in the economy. ”

The downturn following the collapse of Japan's so-called bubble economy of the 1980s was not as severe as the Great Depression. ”

If you want to understand geology, study earthquakes. If you want to understand the economy, study the Depression. ”