Alan Greenspan Press Quotations

The more flexible an economy, the greater its ability to self-correct after inevitable, often unanticipated disturbances, ... The impressive performance of the U.S. economy over the past couple of decades, despite shocks that in the past would have surely produced marked economic contraction, offers the clearest evidence of the benefits of increased market flexibility.

Demand may be moving closer into line with the rate of advance in the economy's potential, given our continued impressive productivity growth, ... Should this favorable outcome prevail, the immediate threat to our prosperity from growing imbalances in our economy would abate.

The current economic performance, with its combination of strong growth and low inflation, is as impressive as any I have witnessed in my near half-century of daily observation of the American economy,

We're going to be running into very severe pressures in later years, and the better we are prepared in moving into that period, the more likely it is that we will address it in a rational, sensible rational way,

Because it is difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable, a highly flexible system needs to be in place to rebalance an economy in which psychology and asset prices could change rapidly,

the pressure to enlarge the pool of skilled workers also requires that we strengthen the significant contributions of other types of training and educational programs, especially for those with lesser skills.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's efforts were designed solely to enhance the probability of an orderly private-sector adjustment, ... No Federal Reserve funds were put at risk, no promises were made by the Federal Reserve and no individual firms were pressured to participate.

The impressive performance of the U.S. economy over the past couple of decades, despite shocks that in the past would have produced marked economic contractions, offers the clearest evidence of the benefits of increased market flexibility,

difficult to suppress growing market exuberance when the economic environment is perceived as more stable.

It is still too early to judge whether the froth will become evident on a widening geographic scale or whether recent indications of some easing of speculative pressures signal the onset of a moderating trend,

Inflationary pressures will be reasonably well contained, so long as productivity is moving at a reasonably good clip,

With price inflation already at a low level, substantial further disinflation would be an unwelcome development, especially to the extent it put pressure on profit margins and impeded the revival of business spending,

Technology is also damping upward price pressures through its effect on international trade,

The likelihood is that we shall be seeing some lower prices on imported goods as a result of the difficulties in Asia, ... But they will not permanently suppress the risks inherent in the tightened labor markets.