Ben Bernanke

The ongoing foreclosure crisis and the foreclosure fraud scandal are issues of great national importance, and of particular importance in my home State.

The Dodd-Frank Act addresses critical gaps and weaknesses in the U.S. regulatory framework.

The Dodd-Frank Act is a major step forward for financial regulation in the United States.

Our task is to do the best we can to try to identify those firms which most likely pose a risk.

The Accord will make the global financial system more stable and reduce the likelihood of future devastating financial crises by requiring internationally active banks to hold more and better quality capital and more robust liquidity…

I think there is quite a bit more work to do to fully implement all that Dodd-Frank has put on the table.

Chairman Bernanke was referring to this view when he cautioned against large and immediate spending cuts.

I think it is very important to address the deficit, but I hope that rather than doing a one-off kind of thing, that you will look at a longer term window.

I hope you will look at everything.

It is very important to have a good education system, and we are not doing well on that count.

I think there would be a lot of agreement that our tax code is very complex, and is not conducive to the most productive activities in many cases.

Monetization would involve a permanent increase in the money supply to basically pay the government's bills through money creation.

I hope that in addressing our long-term fiscal challenges, the Congress and the Administration will undertake reforms to the Government's tax policies and spending priorities.

We have to have a budget that will be reasonably in balance.

We do have to live within our means.

I think it is very important, for individuals and for businesses and for investment.

Acting now to develop a credible program to reduce future deficits would not only enhance economic growth and stability in the long run.

I think in some cases that has been the case, and that as I have said, the Federal Reserve, we understand--we have a responsibility to keep banks safe and sound as best we can.

Foreclosures continue to be very high. There have been sincere government efforts to try to address the problem.

It is not our intention to do anything in particular on the international front.

The Commission plan was also important because it showed how to reduce the deficit and debt in a balanced way.

I believe the deficit and debt reduction plan assembled by the President's Fiscal Commission provides one way forward, and I want to emphasize I supported the Commission report.

We cannot afford to wait until the markets lose confidence in the conduct of our financial affairs.

Nobody doubts the United States has the economic capacity to pay its bills. It is really a question of do we have the political will to do that.

We have a strong commitment to community banks, and we have, in fact, recently increased our schedule of direct meetings with the Board with representatives of community banks.