My bottom line is that monetary policy should react to rising prices for houses or other assets only insofar as they affect the central bank's goal variables - output, employment, and inflation.
Janet YellenThe bottom line for housing is that the concerns we used to hear about the possibility of a devastating collapseโone that might be big enough to cause a recession in the U.S. economyโwhile not fully allayed have diminished. Moreover, while the future for housing activity remains uncertain, I think there is a reasonable chance that housing is in the process of stabilizing, which would mean that it would put a considerably smaller drag on the economy going forward.
Janet YellenThe distribution of wealth is even more unequal than that of income. ...The wealthiest 5% of American households held 54% of all wealth reported in the 1989 survey. Their share rose to 61% in 2010 and reached 63% in 2013. By contrast, the rest of those in the top half of the wealth distribution ยfamilies that in 2013 had a net worth between $81,000 and $1.9 million ยheld 43% of wealth in 1989 and only 36% in 2013.
Janet Yellen