Latest Speech

A Report on the Texas Economy and a Hawk(s)eye View on Recent Fed Pronouncements: What Does It All Mean? Remarks before the Headliners Club Austin, Texas February 2, 2012 "Explicitly acknowledging that monetary policy’s impact on employment is transitory and uncertain is a cardinal event. It signals to the markets that there are limits to the ultimate job-stoking efficacy of Federal Reserve policy. To the extent that inflation is running below 2 percent, the Federal Reserve may have somewhat greater latitude to pursue accommodation. However, the past few years have demonstrated, yet again, that allowing inflation to rise by no means guarantees faster job growth."

Other Recent Speeches

Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? (With Reference to Wodehouse’s Lead Pipe, Saint Willibrord’s Shuffle, Munch’s Scream and Sarah Bloom Raskin’s Sink)
Remarks before the Austin Chamber of Commerce
Austin, Texas
December 16, 2011
"If the American dream is to survive, we will need to re-create a fiscal and regulatory environment that—in conjunction with the Fed conducting prudent monetary policy—will liberate the forces of entrepreneurial risk taking that have always been America’s hallmark."

Taming the Too-Big-to-Fails: Will Dodd–Frank Be the Ticket or Is Lap-Band Surgery Required? (With Reference to Vinny Guadagnino, Andrew Haldane, Paul Volcker, John Milton, Tom Hoenig and Churchill’s ‘Terminological Inexactitude’)
Remarks before Columbia University’s Politics and Business Club
New York City
November 15, 2011
"I shall speak of the difficulty of treating [too big to fail] in a culture held hostage by concerns for 'contagion,' 'systemic risk' and 'unique solutions.' I will posit that preoccupation with these concerns leads to an ethic that coddles survival of the fattest rather than promoting survival of the fittest, to the detriment of social welfare and economic efficiency."

Thoughts on Bastiat (With a Nod to Keynes!)
Remarks at the Bastiat–Hoiles Prize Dinner
New York City
November 12, 2011
"As Bastiat wrote in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1848, we are at risk of becoming a nation where 'the state is responsible for providing a living for everyone.' The reality is that even if this were desirable, which it is not, pliant fiscal authorities—Republican and Democrat—who have led us down this road for decades find themselves in a financial cul de sac; they have run out of enabling money."

Buy a Ticket! (With Reference to the Strauss Brothers, Ambassador Mike Moore, Kenneth Arrow, Financial Sharpies, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gov. Dewey)
Remarks before the Dallas Friday Group
Dallas, Texas
October 21, 2011
"Absent some shock, I envision a slow but steady improvement in the economy into 2012. That is, if our fiscal authorities will remove their stranglehold on clarifying fiscal initiatives. If not, then, in my view, I expect job creators will remain in a defensive crouch and all bets are off."

A Report on the Economy (With a Nod to the Carl Sewells and Ben Bernanke)
Remarks before the Texas A&M Retailing Summit
Dallas, Texas
October 7, 2011
"We have filled the gas tanks of the economy with affordable liquidity. What is needed now is for employers to confidently step on the pedal and engage the transmission that will use that fuel to move the great job-creating machine of America forward."

Texas: What Makes Us Exceptional? Where Are We Vulnerable?
Remarks before the Texas Economic Development Council Annual Conference
Dallas, Texas
October 6, 2011
"We must not lose track of this simple, unalterable, indisputable, critical fact: We have done well so far; our economy is mighty. But to stay ahead of the curve and compete in tomorrow’s global marketplace, Texas must better educate its population."

Explaining Dissent on the FOMC Vote for Operation Twist (With Reference to Jan Mayen Island, Paul Volcker and Thor’s Hammer)
Remarks before the Dallas Assembly
Dallas, Texas
September 27, 2011
"Monetary policy cannot solve the problem of substandard economic performance unless it is complemented by fiscal policy and regulatory reform that encourages the private sector to put to work the affordable and abundant liquidity we are able to create as the nation’s monetary authority."

Of Moose and Men (With No Reference to Steinbeck)
Remarks before the National Association for Business Economics
Dallas, Texas
September 12, 2011
"It is incumbent on the Fed and other bank regulators to reduce the regulatory burdens that are inhibiting―indeed, overwhelming―community bankers whose business it is to lend to creditworthy small businesses."

Connecting the Dots: Texas Employment Growth; a Dissenting Vote; and the Ugly Truth (With Reference to P.G. Wodehouse)
Remarks at the Midland Community Forum
MIdland, Texas
August 17, 2011
"I have spoken to this many times in public. Those with the capacity to hire American workers... are immobilized. Not because they lack entrepreneurial zeal or do not wish to grow; not because they can’t access cheap and available credit. Rather, they simply cannot budget or manage for the uncertainty of fiscal and regulatory policy."

An Economic Overview: What's Next?
Remembering Carol Reed, Aesop's Fable, Kenneth Arrow and Thomas Dewey
Remarks before the Rotary Club of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
July 13, 2011
"We are being challenged as the place to invest job-creating capital. Our fiscal and regulatory authorities do not operate in a vacuum; we live in a globalized, interconnected world where money is free to go to wherever it earns the best return. In their solution to the debt crisis, our political leaders must develop an entirely new structure of incentives for private businesses and investors to put their money to work creating jobs here at home."

¡Ándale Pues! Get On with Advancing Hispanic Prosperity Through Education
Remarks at the Hispanic Economic Experience Conference
Dallas, Texas
June 16, 2011
"In Texas, as anywhere else in the United States and in all capitalist societies, "you earn what you learn." Every study known to man, and plain common sense, tells you that income is directly correlated to educational attainment."

Containing (or Restraining) Systemic Risk: The Need to Not Fail on 'Too Big to Fail' (With Reference to Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe, Irving Kristol, Joe Nocera, Bastiat, Nietzsche, Mencken and Sandy Weill)
Remarks before the Market News International Seminar
New York, N.Y.
June 6, 2011
"Postcrisis, the large institutions are even larger: The top 10 now account for 64 percent of assets, up from 58 percent before the crisis and substantially higher than the 25 percent they accounted for in 1990. In effect, more prudent and better-managed banks have been denied the market share that would have been theirs if mismanaged big banks had been allowed to go out of business.

A Perspective on the U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy (With Reference to the Music of Richard Wagner and Gangsta Rap)
Remarks before New Mexico State University's Spring 2011 Domenici Institute Forum
Las Cruces, New Mexico
May 4, 2011
"So, bottom line: With regard to the economy, like the music of Wagner, the pace of economic growth may not be as bad as it sounds. With regard to inflation, like gangsta rap, it may not be as good as it sounds."

'Is America's Decline Exaggerated or Inevitable?' The Role of Monetary and Fiscal Policy
(With Reference to St. Peter, Calvin Coolidge, Walter Bagehot, Paul Volcker, Winston Churchill and T.R. Fehrenbach)
Remarks before the Society of American Business Editors and Writers 2011 Annual Conference Dallas, Texas
April 8, 2011
"Now, we at the Fed are nearing a tipping point. Just as we pressed on in doing our duty through extraordinary, exigent measures, we must now discipline ourselves to just as persistently normalize our operations in a timely way."

Churchill, Baruch, Lindsay Lohan, Congress and the Fed
Remarks at the Institute of International Bankers Annual Washington Conference
Washington, D.C.
March 7, 2011
"I argued against the $600 billion extension [buying U.S. Treasuries] the voters on the FOMC approved last November. And I remain doubtful enough as to its efficacy that if at any time between now and June, it should prove demonstrably counterproductive, I will vote to curtail or perhaps discontinue it."

A Need for Innovative Fiscal Policy (With a Nod to John Stemmons, Ronald Reagan and Paddy McCoy)
Remarks before the Stemmons Corridor Business Association
Dallas, Texas
February 8, 2011
"I would be very wary of expanding our balance sheet further; indeed, given current economic and financial conditions, it is hard for me to envision a scenario where I would not use my voting position this year to formally dissent should the FOMC recommend another tranche of monetary accommodation."

The Limits of Monetary Policy: 'Monetary Policy Responsibility Cannot Substitute for Government Irresponsibility'
Remarks before a luncheon meeting of the Manhattan Institute and e21
New York City
January 12, 2011
"The key to correcting the underperformance of the American economy and American job creation does not rest with the Federal Reserve. It is in the hands of those who make fiscal and regulatory policy."

Texas: What Makes Us Exceptional? Where Are We Vulnerable?
Remarks before the 2010 Pre-Session Legislative Conference
Austin, Texas
December, 2010
"With each passing year, Texas has consistently outperformed the rest of the nation in growing economic prosperity. Over the past three especially difficult years, the Texas economy has outperformed all other states, except for those tiny ones whose populations would not aggregate to the size of any of our major cities."

Recent Decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee: A Bridge to Fiscal Sanity? (Acknowledging Henry B. Gonzalez and Winston Churchill)
Remarks before the Association for Financial Professionals
San Antonio, Texas
November 8, 2010
"In sum, I asked that the FOMC consider that we might be prescribing the wrong medicine for the ailment from which our economy is suffering. Liquidity and abundant money are not the binding constraints on the economic activity we wish to see."

Rangers, Yankees and Federal Open Market Committee: One Game at a Time
Remarks before the New York Association for Business Economics
New York, N.Y.
October 19, 2010
"So, what will we likely decide at the next FOMC meeting? As with the American League championship, you'll find out when it's over and only then."

To Ease or Not to Ease? What Next for the Fed?
(With Reference to Bill Frenzel, Alan Greenspan, Masaaki Shirakawa, Sherman Maisel and Raghuram Rajan)
Remarks before Economic Club of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
October 7, 2010
"There is a great deal of legitimate debate still to take place within the FOMC on the subject of quantitative easing and the pros and cons and costs and benefits of further monetary accommodation. Whatever we might do, if anything, must be consistent with long-term price stability and not add to the nightmare of confusing signals already being sent to job creators. "

Observations on the U.S. Economy: Need the Fed Do More? (With Reference to Elvis Costello, Clarence Day, Narayana Kocherlakota and Bernard Baruch)
Remarks before the Vancouver Board of Trade
Vancouver, British Columbia
October 1, 2010
"Without exception, all the business leaders I interview cite nonmonetary factors—fiscal policy and regulatory constraints or, worse, uncertainty going forward—and better opportunities for earning a return on investment elsewhere as inhibiting their willingness to commit to expansion in the U.S. "

Monetary Policy Going Forward (Citing Bagehot, Bernanke and Babe Laufenberg)
Remarks before the Greater Houston Partnership
Houston, Texas
September 1, 2010
"If the fiscal and regulatory authorities are able to dispel the angst that they are reportedly causing, further accommodation may not be needed because the liquidity that has been built up on corporate balance sheets and in the excess reserves of banks might then be released into the economy and spur job creation."

Random Refereeing: How Uncertainty Hinders Economic Growth (With Reference to Lucky Puppies, Pepper...and Salt, Lawrence Summers and Thomas Jefferson)
Remarks before the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
San Antonio, Texas
July 29, 2010
"In whatever realm and whatever form, excessive uncertainty is the enemy of economic growth. As Ben Bernanke wrote in 1980, the 'resolution of uncertainty' can lead to '[a business] investment boom.' It follows, then, that if and as regulators and legislators provide more clarity, a major roadblock to economic growth will be removed."

More 2010 Speeches»