Wright Patman Quotes

The case against a fully independent central bank is strong indeed.

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

The IMF acts on the mandate of the international community.

Bad as "independence" is, the main fault of the Federal Reserve System - an admirable system if conducted in the public interest - is that too much power and control rests in the hands of people whose private interests are directly affected by the Federal Reserves' actions.

I have always thought and I still think that the Central Bank should act independently. Indeed, it does, you can take my word. I do not interfere in the decisions of the Central Bank and I do not give instructions to the Bank management or to its head.

The Fed's ability to raise and lower short-term interest rates is its primary control over the economy.

The stability of global financial markets is a public good. If governments fail to protect this public good, then those who suffer are the working people of the world whose jobs, whose homes, and whose standard of living depends on it.

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.

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.

So just as I want pilots on the planes that I fly, when it comes to monetary policy, I want to think that there is someone with sound judgement at the controls.

Interest rates are used to achieve overall economic stability.

The Fed's independence is critical.

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.

All the banks in Christendom could not control money.

I don’t think that the Fed [Federal Reserve] ever can be or should be a prisoner of the markets.

The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution.

It is the central bank governor, unlike other regulators or government secretaries, who has command over significant policy levers and has to occasionally disagree with the most powerful people in the country.

The few emerging economies that have avoided booms and busts have done so by adhering to sound policy frameworks.

Countries that are occasionally immature in their ability to manage their economic affairs as well as they should - and that includes most of them - are going to find that the world is at risk.

The role of monetary policy is to smooth out business cycles by promoting steady inflation and healthy labor markets, but modern central bankers have taken an activist turn.

The Federal Reserve is incapable of accomplishing its stated objectives.

There is no entity in the world that controls our lives more than the Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve is the overlord of the money supply. If these two are not steering in the same direction, they can either neutralize each other or have the economy lurching in all directions. This is not a rational system for setting economic policy. It has given us trouble in the past, as the text will establish, and will inevitably in the future.

As long as we issue fiat currency, I see no alternative to a legal tender law.

In the United States we have, in effect, two governments ... We have the duly constituted Government ... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.