Ben Bernanke Quotes
The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.
Bernanke, Ben S. "Deflation: Making Sure 'It' Doesn't Happen Here." National Economists Club, Washington, D.C., 21 Nov. 2002.
The ‘Fed’ refers to the Federal Reserve Board, the strength of which lies in its independence from politics. Some, however, believe that there should not be any entity that performs a major function in our society which is not accountable to the Executive Branch or the Congress or both.
There actually are restraints on how much paper money a government will issue, but unlike with a gold standard where the restraint is external and controlled by how much gold the country can amass. However, with paper money the restraints area all internal. If too much money is printed, the value of the money relative to gold, silver and other nation’s money will go down and imports will become more expensive. Excessive printing of money can easily produce inflation. However, the internal restraints can be overcome by the government’s need to raise money for war, debt or other purposes. So Paul and many other politicians have a deep distrust of paper money not backed by Gold or Silver. In the United States however, the Government does not control the money supply or the printing policies of money. This is under the control of the Federal Reserve Board which while appointed by President’s as terms expire, have a great deal of independence both from the Executive and Legislative Branches. For that reason Paul is even more distrustful when the Federal Reserve decides to print money. See {629491} for his unsuccessful effort to abolish the Federal Reserve Bank.
Stamp was a banker and the 2nd richest man in England at the time. Yet he warned about aspects of banking that needed reform and regulation.
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as the 14th Chair of the Federal Reserve, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chair, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis, for which he was named the 2009 Time Person of the Year. Before becoming Federal Reserve chair, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave.
