Folks in the bottom half of the economy are already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic policy inadvertently induces a recession. ↗
In the immediate postwar years, the whole of Europe was in a recession. So first of all, it helped us step out of a recession; it gave a certain amount of speed to the economy. But that was the first step. ↗
Up until the Depression, recession had a moral character: it was supposed to purge the body economic of the greed and excess that attends a business expansion. ↗
The other thing is quality of life; if you have a place where you can go and have a picnic with your family, it doesn't matter if it's a recession or not, you can include that in your quality of life. ↗
You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets. ↗
And so Fannie Mae produces very strong results for investors in - when interest rates are high and when interest rates are low, in recession and during booms. ↗
If we did go into a recession, something that's always possible for the U.S. or Europe, we could lower interest rates and expand the money supply without worrying about the price of gold. ↗
Our problem is not adopting reforms, which we will do without question. It is not reaching an objective, which we will meet. But it is finding an end to the recession. ↗
