Yellen Warns Against Erasing Regulations Made After Financial Crisis
Ms. Yellen said changes since the global financial crisis, which began a decade
ago, have significantly improved the resilience of the financial system.
“The events of the crisis demanded action, needed reforms were implemented
and these reforms have made the system safer,” Ms. Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday morning at an annual monetary policy conference here.
“Already, for some, memories of this experience may be fading — memories of just how costly the financial crisis was
and why certain steps were taken in response,” Ms. Yellen said.
Ms. Yellen rarely spoke about regulatory issues during the early years of her tenure as chairwoman,
but she has addressed the topic with regularity since Mr. Trump became president.
— Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, delivered a broad rebuttal on Friday to Republican criticism
that financial regulation is impeding economic growth.
Gary D. Cohn, Mr. Trump’s chief economic adviser, whom Mr. Trump has described as a candidate
for Ms. Yellen’s job, is an architect of the administration’s regulatory plans.
Ms. Yellen said there was no clear evidence that increased regulation had been causing broad or deep reductions in the availability of loans,
but she said it was more difficult to assess whether there might be smaller impacts.
