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.
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
In America, people with lots of money can easily avoid the consequences of bad bets and big losses by cashing out at the first sign of trouble.
Globalisation, for me, seems to be not first-order harm, and I find it very hard not to think about the billion people who have been dragged out of poverty as a result.
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.
Tax breaks and other financial breaks that favor the wealthiest among us do not create greater prosperity for all; they simply siphon off more and more money to those who already have it, and more and more money away from those who do not.
Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.