We don't look at stock prices and say, 'If they are rising we have to raise interest rates,' ... To the extent that the stock market affects the economy, we will respond to that.
Indeed, our goal, in responding to the complexity of current economic forces, is to extend the expansion by containing imbalances and avoiding the very recession that would complete a business cycle,
Much fiscal policy is implemented, not through spending increases, but through tax credits and other so-called tax expenditures. The markets should respond to them as they do spending cuts, with little contraction in economic activity.
Let me say this anyway on the record: We do not and have not been targeting stock prices for the purposes of endeavoring to stabilize this economy, ... We react if and when stock market price changes impact on the economy. We respond to the economy.