We do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.

Inflation is certainly low and stable and, measured in unemployment and labour-market slack, the economy has made a lot of progress. The pace of growth is disappointingly slow, mostly because productivity growth has been very slow, which is not really something amenable to monetary policy. It comes from changes in technology, changes in worker skills and a variety of other things, but not monetary policy, in particular.

One might as well try to perform brain surgery with a sledgehammer.

...the Federal Reserve has the capacity to operate in domestic money markets to maintain interest rates at a level consistent with our economic goals

The people who best use their advantages, or overcome adversity, and work honestly are those most worthy of admiration.

The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.

Importantly, in the 1930s, in the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, despite its mandate, was quite passive and, as a result, financial crisis became very severe, lasted essentially from 1929 to 1933.