A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate - these are the folks who reap the largest rewards.

It's the price of success: people start to think you're omnipotent.

Although low inflation is generally good, inflation that is too low can pose risks to the economy - especially when the economy is struggling.

Monetary policy cannot do much about long-run growth, all we can try to do is to try to smooth out periods where the economy is depressed because of lack of demand

Our mission, as set forth by the Congress is a critical one: to preserve price stability, to foster maximum sustainable growth in output and employment, and to promote a stable and efficient financial system that serves all Americans well and fairly.

Nobody really understands gold prices and I don't pretend to understand them either.

The central bank needs to be able to make policy without short term political concerns.