Alan Greenspan Federal Quotations

If somebody had said to me in June or July of 1987, 'We'd like you to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, but you're never allowed to discuss any economics after you leave,' I'd have said, 'Forget it.' What do they want me to do? Become an anthropologist?'

Until market forces, assisted by a vigilant Federal Reserve, affect the necessary alignment of aggregate demand with the growth of potential aggregate supply, the full benefits of innovative productivity acceleration are at risk of being undermined by financial and economic instability,

I am extraordinarily grateful to Alice Rivlin for her many contributions to the Federal Reserve.

I am honored to be nominated by President Bush and, if confirmed by the Senate, to continue my service as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

we may be governors of the Federal Reserve but we are also citizens of this country.

It has been an extraordinary privilege to be able to serve my country at the Federal Reserve, and I would be honored if the Senate saw fit to enable me to continue this association for another four years,

Thus our baseline outlook for the U.S. economy is one of sustained economic growth and contained inflation pressures. In our view, realizing this outcome will require the Federal Reserve to continue to remove monetary accommodation.

We at the Federal Reserve, recognizing the powerful forces of productivity growth and global restraint on inflation, have not perceived to date the need to tighten policy,

We at the Federal Reserve have greatly benefited from his perspective and keen insights.

With regard to margin requirements, studies suggest that changes in such requirements have no appreciable and predictable effect on stock prices, ... Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve recognizes that considerable risks can be involved in the purchase of equity on margin, especially in volatile markets, and believes lenders and borrowers need to assess carefully the risks they are assuming through the use of margin.

The Federal Reserve, myself in particular, find the general thrust of the deputy secretary's remarks very close to ours.

The Federal Reserve has responded to the balance of market forces by gradually raising the federal funds rate over the past year, ... Certainly, to have done otherwise -- to have held the federal funds rate at last year's level even as credit demands and market interest rates rose -- would have required an inappropriately inflationary expansion of liquidity.

The Federal Reserve has been unable to find any credible purpose for the huge balance sheets built by Fannie and Freddie other than the creation of profit through the exploitation of the market-granted subsidy,

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 imbalance in the federal budgetary situation, unless addressed soon, will pose serious longer-term fiscal difficulties,

The markets are demanding that we change outdated statutory limitations that stand in the way of more efficiently and effectively delivering financial services to the public, ... The Federal Reserve agrees and urges prompt enactment of financial modernization legislation.