Central bankers cannot explain equity or housing prices and their movements any better than investors can. And Bernanke knows as well as anyone that none of the vast academic literature suggests a large role for asset prices in setting monetary policy, except in the face of extraordinary shocks that influence output and inflation, such as the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
在表面上看，伯南克的观点在学术上看起来是无懈可击的。中央银行行长们并不比投资者们更高明地解释资本或者房地产市场及其走向。而且，伯南克和任何人一样知道，除非像二十世纪三十年代大萧条那样非同寻常的、影响产出和通货膨胀的冲击面前，汗牛充栋的学术文献中没有什么东西可以表明资本价格在确定货币政策起到重要的作用。