The key here is if you can become the best practice headquarters where you can pull these voluntary standards, these creative new ideas to make things safer...

Absolutely not.

I would not do anything. Those decisions are up to Congress.

We have continued to keep interest rates close to zero to try to stimulate growth.

I would also like to express my gratitude to President Obama for nominating me to a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and for his support for a strong and independent Federal Reserve.

The Congress will have to make those trade-offs.

the Federal Reserve, they created, arguably, the most powerful institution in the whole world.

the Federal Government, the Federal Reserve, let down the American people and a lot of people have been hurt.

For me, perhaps the biggest failure in the Federal Reserve in the political side here in Washington is that amid all of these failures, the politicians, the folks in the administration, and Federal Reserve have claimed credit for saving…

We cannot allow that to happen with the Federal Reserve.

We were told if we did not appropriate nearly $1 trillion to buy toxic assets, the worldwide economic system was likely to collapse.

There is no reason that independence needs to mean secrecy.

The belief by market participants that some firms may be too big to fail has many undesirable effects.

I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

I think there is an appropriate division of labor: Congress and the administration, fiscal policy; Federal Reserve, monetary policy.

Some of the steps we have taken, like the AIG episode, for example, obviously have hurt the Fed a lot politically.

I think living wills, while they are not a panacea, can be a useful adjunct to supervision.

The unemployment rate is very high, and it is a tremendous problem, and it obviously means a lot of hardship for a lot of people.