Jerome Powell Quotes

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

The Federal Reserve can only buy Treasuries and agencies, and moreover quantitative easing typically involves buying longer-term Treasuries and agencies in terms of bills, for example.

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

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

The Fed is the greatest hedge fund in history.

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.

The Fed is totally open.

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

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

In 1977, when I started my first job at the Federal Reserve Board as a staff economist in the Division of International Finance, it was an article of faith in central banking that secrecy about monetary policy decisions was the best policy: Central banks, as a rule, did not discuss these decisions, let alone their future policy intentions.

There's no other job in public life that is like chairman of the Fed.

To minimize market uncertainty and achieve the maximum effect of its policies, the Federal Reserve is committed to providing the public as much information as possible about the uses of its balance sheet, plans regarding future uses of its balance sheet, and the criteria on which the relevant decisions are based.

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.

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.

Our purpose is to lean against the winds of deflation or inflation, whichever way they are blowing.

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

Our Federal Reserve has unlimited money raising powers.

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

If you believe in free markets, why do we have to have the Federal Reserve set interest rates?

Paying interest on reserve balances enables the Fed to break the strong link between the quantity of reserves and the level of the federal funds rate and, in turn, allows the Federal Reserve to control short-term interest rates when reserves are plentiful.

Monetary policy is like juggling six balls... it is not 'interest rate up, interest rate down.' There is the exchange rate, there are long term yields, there are short term yields, there is credit growth.

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

Once an economy reaches a certain level of acceleration... the Fed is no longer with you... The Fed, instead of trying to get the economy moving, reverts to acting like the central bankers they are and starts worrying about inflation and things getting too hot.

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.