President Obama on Ben Bernanke and Fed policy

They're going to be making sure that they keep an eye on inflation, that they're not encouraging some of the bubbles that we've seen in our economy that have resulted in busts.

~President Obama, Reuters, Oct 2, 2013

Carl Icahn: "It's sad to see Bernanke go"

Our country owes Bernanke a great deal for pulling us out of the mess several of the largest investment banks go us into in ‘08.

Our country has been lucky over its history that it has had the right people to call on in a crisis. It’s sad to see Bernanke go.

~ Carl Icahn, September 24, 2013, Twitter

Thomas Sowell on greed

I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep what you've earned, but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.

~ Thomas Sowell

Time magazine's economists advice easing monetary brakes heading into 1970s

Arthur Okun, the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, calls the chance of either a recession or a continued boom "a long shot." By his handicapping, the Government stands a 50% chance of bringing the inflation rate down to about 4% without causing a politically unacceptable rise in unemployment. Still, Okun insists—as do the other members of TIME's Board of Economists—that it is high time the Federal Reserve eased its monetary brakes.

~ Time, December 19, 1969

Time magazine on the Fed doing "practically nothing" to stop the contraction of the money supply in the early 1930s

[Milton] Friedman blames unknowing monetary policy in large measure for the magnitude of the Depression of the 1930s. Partly because so many banks failed between 1929 and 1933, the U.S. supply of money shrank by 33%—and that compounded a worldwide economic collapse. The Federal Reserve, which took a narrow view of its responsibilities, felt itself almost powerless to reverse the tide of events. Not really understanding what should be done, it did practically nothing to offset the contraction of the money supply.

~  Time, December 19, 1969

Charles Mackay on speculation

Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper.

~ Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841)

Brian Belski bullish on equities for the next 5 years

The next five years you definitely want to be in equities.

~ Brian Belski, as appeared on CNBC, August 2, 2013, 9:05 AM ET