Although we work through financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street.
Janet YellenRead
People stop buying things, and that is how you turn a slowdown into a recession.
Interpretation
Consumer spending is crucial for economic health, and a decline in purchases can signal a recession.
Janet Yellen's quote highlights the interconnectedness of consumer behavior and the overall economy. When people reduce their spending, businesses experience decreased sales, which can lead to layoffs, reduced income, and ultimately a recession. This illustrates the critical role consumer confidence and spending play in maintaining economic stability.
In practice
In a presentation about economic trends, one might say, 'As Yellen noted, people stop buying things, leading to recessions.'
Although we work through financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street.
We need to keep in mind the well-established fact that the full effects of monetary policy are felt only after long lags. This means that policy makers cannot wait until they have achieved their objectives to begin adjusting policy.
A clear lesson of history is that a 'sine qua non' for sustained economic recovery following a financial crisis is a thoroughgoing repair of the financial system.
Transparency concerning the Federal Reserve's conduct of monetary policy is desirable because better public understanding enhances the effectiveness of policy. More important, however, is that transparent communications reflect the Federal Reserve's commitment to accountability within our democratic system of government.
For decades, the pace of technological change in manufacturing has outstripped that in the economy as a whole. And, so, firms - manufacturing firms - have found it easier to continue producing by - with - reducing their workforces.
Inequality has risen to the point that it seems to me worthwhile for the U.S. to seriously consider taking the risk of making our economy more rewarding for more of the people.
History proves... that a smart central bank can protect the economy and the financial sector from the nastier side effects of a stock market collapse.
The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government.
The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.
There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life.
Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act.
The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.
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