Quotes by Martin Feldstein, page 2

Martin Feldstein - american Economist

Life period: 1939

Inflation is lower and more stable and the real business cycle fluctuations are more modest.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about affair, real estate

My theme this evening is that America needs a competitive dollar.

Of course, everything is not perfect. We see high unemployment and low productivity growth, but these are (as previous speakers have emphasized) the result of poor structural policies rather than inappropriate monetary policy.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about perfection

Refinancing allowed households to take out cash to spend on other things while also reducing their monthly mortgage payments.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about things

So just as I want pilots on the planes that I fly, when it comes to monetary policy, I want to think that there is someone with sound judgement at the controls.

The decline of the overvalued dollar in the 1980s also had no adverse effect on economic activity in the United States.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about decline, activity

The good news is that a competitive dollar in the global market and a strong dollar at home are compatible in both the long run and during the transition to a more competitive dollar.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about stores, home, good, good luck

The household saving rate has been falling since the early 1990s, declining from 7 percent in 1990 to just 2.4 percent in 2002.

The key to the economy's strength in 2004 and 2005 was that household saving declined dramatically while the price of oil rose.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about economy

The more competitive value of the dollar turned around the trade deficit.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about commerce, value

The only way that we can reduce our financial dependence on the inflow of funds from the rest of the world is to reduce our trade deficit.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about commerce, rest, world

The price of imported oil in the US doubled between summer 2003 and summer 2005, reducing consumers' purchasing power by more than 1 per cent of gross domestic product.

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Thirty years ago, many economists argued that inflation was a kind of minor inconvenience and that the cost of reducing inflation was too high a price to pay. No one would make those arguments today.

To finance this trade deficit, the U.S. has to borrow from the rest of the world or sell American assets like stocks, businesses, and real estate to the rest of the world.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about commerce, real estate, rest, world, americans

Today's macroeconomic problems require attention to more fundamental forces of individual incentives and institutional rigidities.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about attention, force, problems

Unless the trade deficit shrinks, the combination of the trade deficit and the interest and dividend payments to foreigners will grow ever more rapidly.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about commerce, interest

We also do not understand why long-term rates have not increased while the Federal Reserve has been raising short-term rates.

We are particularly poor at the open economy issues.

Quote by Martin Feldstein about economy

We do not understand the links between asset prices, monetary policy, and aggregate demand. We do not understand speculative markets adequately.

We pay some price when necessary to bring down inflation but that price is temporary and is not large relative to the permanent gain from reduced inflation.