Janet L. Yellen’s Speeches

Hello and thank you for coming. The topic of my talk tonight is the outlook for the economy. I will try to keep my comments reasonably brief out of consideration for those of you who need to rush home and finish your taxes! I should mention that my comments reflect my own views, and not necessarily those of my Federal Reserve colleagues. Lately we’ve been getting some pretty encouraging news on the economy. It’s been a long time coming and is very welcome indeed. I am especially pleased to see a return to growth in the job market. Nonfarm payrolls grew […]

Hello and thank you for coming. I’m very grateful to Town Hall Los Angeles for organizing this event. It gives me an opportunity to explain to you how I see the economy shaping up in the months ahead. I will also use the occasion to talk about several issues that are high on the public policy agenda now: federal budget deficits and the proper place of the Federal Reserve in our system of government. Specifically, I want to address a concern that I hear people express more and more often: that massive fiscal deficits could lead to high inflation. I will […]

Thank you, William. It’s very nice to see a familiar face and to receive such a gracious introduction. And it’s a pleasure to be here with you in beautiful San Diego. This morning, I will try to cover a lot of ground. I’ll survey the economic landscape, and give you my reading of the outlook for the national economy. I’ll also discuss the situation in San Diego and finish with some comments about monetary policy. In particular, I want to go over a matter that’s on the minds of many people right now: the Federal Reserve’s strategy for winding down the […]

Thank you. It is a great privilege to be here among such a distinguished group. I want to thank the Institute of Regulation & Risk for inviting me to speak tonight and express my particular gratitude to Ms. Au King-chi of the Hong Kong Government and Mr. Norman Chan of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. I’m especially grateful to our gracious host Mr. Robert Pringle. Given the limited time I have, I will try to lay out some broad themes concerning the implications of the financial crisis for regulatory reform and monetary policy. My comments are my own and do not necessarily […]

Thank you very much Sheila. It’s a great pleasure to see you again and to join all of you this morning. I want to express my appreciation to Sheila for her excellent service as a member and as deputy chair of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank’s board of directors from 1999 to 2004. I am very pleased to have the chance to speak to a group of professionals dedicated to advancing the understanding of land economics. As you know, problems in real estate were central to the financial crisis and ongoing developments in this sector bear importantly on the economy’s prospects for […]

Watch Video It’s a pleasure to appear before a group of professionals who spend as much time trying to understand the financial markets and the economy as I do.  It’s fair to say that the last two or three years have provided all of us an education—a far-from-welcome one—of just how complex these subjects are.  We have had to rethink old assumptions and question conventional wisdom in the face of a crisis whose dimensions few of us might have imagined. I am hugely relieved that our financial system appears to have survived this near-death experience. And, as painful as this recession has […]

Thank you very much. I’m delighted to be able to talk to an audience of community bankers in such a beautiful setting. The 12th Federal Reserve District stretches from Utah to Hawaii, and from Arizona to Alaska. As I travel around this region, I often think how lucky I am to be able to visit some of the most breathtaking places in the United States. Coeur d’Alene is clearly among them. I will speak today about the difficult economic landscape lying before us and what that means for community banks. It’s fair to say that you have been caught in a financial and economic […]

Watch Video Thank you very much. I’m very glad to be here before this thoughtful and engaged audience to talk about the economy and the Federal Reserve’s response. The Fed has faced extraordinary challenges over the past two years and these challenges continue as this very painful recession grinds on. I don’t have to tell you how difficult these times have been for the American people. You are reminded of it every time you look at your retirement portfolio or hear about rising foreclosures and plunging home values. Your businesses may be squeezed as customers retreat and credit remains scarce. You […]