Richard Shelby Quotes

I’ve always been a little nervous about the Fed. Quite frankly, I’m a little nervous about the degree of their independence.

However, in spite of the general perception that monetary policy should be conducted so as to avert deflation, a central bank cannot lower interest rates below the zero lower bound.

We made a decision that monetary policy will be made by an independent European Central Bank.

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.

Well, I think as long as people are talking about stimulus, I think the Fed will be thinking about cutting rates because monetary policy is the better way to go because you can turn it on and turn it off.

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.

It's true that the Federal Reserve faces a lot of political pressure and is unpopular in many circles.

I think the Fed is not designed to have effective tools to deal with the economy. It should settle for just controlling the money supply. And - if it insists, it can worry about inflation.

There is always the potential for a central bank to engage in discretionary monetary policy and to break the one-to-one link between changes in foreign reserves and changes in the money supply.

The Fed [Federal Reserve System], whether it likes it or not, is required to provide adequate reserves to the banking system in order for the government to finance its needs, even when that is inflationary.

The nation can't count on the Fed when the Fed can't count.

The Fed [Federal Reserve] is the world’s largest hedge fund.

For the first time the committee [Federal Reserve] was using communication — mere words — as its primary monetary policy tool.

The government will always tell you that it wants low inflation. The real issue is the horizon over which to bring inflation down.

I will be the first to say that it is always difficult to get monetary policy just right. But the Fed's analytical prowess is top-notch, and our forecasting record is second to none.

The best way that a central bank can support growth on a durable basis is to ensure inflation is low, stable - there is financial stability - and that is the role that the central bank plays.

If Congress wanted to intervene with the Federal Reserve, well, we created the Federal Reserve. We could uncreate it. But would you want Congress regulating the money supply? We'd have drowned in inflation, or gone bankrupt, decades ago.

There is a European Central Bank, of course, established and it has the structure similar to the Federal Reserve system, not precisely the same but similar.

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.

The Fed is totally open.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is committed to policies that promote maximum employment and price stability, consistent with our mandate from Congress.

All the Federal Reserve can do is make loans against collateral.

A good monetary policy follows inflationary expectations and not historical numbers.

The central focus of what we are doing at the Fed is to keep inflation from accelerating - and preferably decelerating.

The Fed has the ability to put money out, it's got the ability to take money back in, and if they don't do that, we will have hyperinflation worse than we had in 1980 and 1981.