William McChesney Martin Jr. Quotes

Whip Inflation Now

After a long period in which the desired direction for inflation was always downward, the industrialized world's central banks must today try to avoid major changes in the inflation rate in either direction.

A crucial responsibility of any central bank is to control inflation, the average rate of increase in the prices of a broad group of goods and services.

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

No one thinks of controlling inflation of a continental-sized country by holding back municipal tariffs. Macroeconomic stability cannot be achieved through microeconomic intervention.

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

I have never believed that central banks should have rigid inflation targeting. That is not a good thing to stabilize. There is nothing in economic theory to back this.

People forget how difficult it is to stop inflation or get it under control… I worry about it all the time.

If by carelessness in controlling inflation and imposing controls on our general economy we are unable to meet these temporary but vital calls upon us, we will be courting real disaster.

The only way to ensure that inflation expectations remain safely anchored near the FOMC's target is to keep inflation close to that target on a consistent basis.

I'm against using Petrobras to combat inflation.

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 pay some price when necessary to bring down inflation but that price is temporary and is not large relative to the permanent gain from reduced inflation.

Low and stable inflation in many countries is an important accomplishment that will continue to bring significant benefits.

We have to keep our eye on inflation, but so far inflation remains reasonably in check on the global stage.

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.

I reject the advice of those who think the only way to fight inflation is to throw millions of people out of work .... I guarantee you that I will not fight inflation with your jobs.

There's no such thing as a painless cure for inflation.

Attempting to control inflation or protect the dollar by throwing legions of people out of work and shutting down shifts in our factories and mines is a hopeless policy.

I have said repeatedly that the way to sustainable growth is to bring down inflation to much more reasonable levels.

Growth is always there in the MPC's scheme of things; we don't lose sight of that, but not at the cost of inflation.

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.

Yes, 4% is the government-mandated target to the MPC. The plus/minus 2 percentage-point upper and lower bands are the tolerance levels specified by the government. If we breach those for three consecutive quarters, we need to inform the government of why that happened and what we propose to do to bring inflation within the two bands.

The most important thing to remember is that inflation is not an act of God, that inflation is not a catastrophe of the elements or a disease that comes like the plague. Inflation is a policy.

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.