Political Quotes

“I would like to include in the record of this debate an article about the Fed's policy model sacrificing its maximum employment mandate and targeting 5 to 6 percent as unemployment. Speech by Janet L. Yellen, Vice Chair, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System at the Boston Economic Club Dinner, Boston, Massachusetts June 6, 2012 Perspectives on Monetary Policy Good evening. I'm honored to have the opportunity to address the Boston Economic Club and I'm grateful to Chip Case for inviting me to speak to you tonight. As most of you probably know, Chip was one of the first economists to document worrisome signs of a housing bubble in parts of the United States. After sounding an early alarm in 2003, Chip watched the bubble grow and was prescient in anticipating the very serious toll that its unwinding would impose on the economy. Chip recognized that declining house prices would affect not just residential construction but also consumer spending, the ability of households to borrow, and the health of the financial system. In light of these pervasive linkages, the repeat sales house price index that bears Chip's name is one of the most closely watched of all U.S. economic indicators. Indeed, as I will discuss this evening, prolonged weakness in the housing sector remains one of several serious headwinds facing the U.S. economy. Given these headwinds, I believe that a highly accommodative monetary policy will be needed for quite some time to help the economy mend.…”