effect of the policies are having on us. ms. yellen: we do look very carefully and try to minimize adverse spillovers when possible of our policy. one thing we can do that tends to minimize volatility around policy changes is to communicate as clearly as we can how we are framing policy, to attempt to avoid surprises. and we meet regularly with other central bankers to make sure that we are explaining how we are thinking about policy. we do have a domestic mandate. we recognize how important the influences are from the global economy. the u.s. economy, we recognize that if we impact foreign countries, that will in turn impact us. so, that is a key part of our analysis. but you know, when the u.s. is

doing well, when the u.s. is growing, and when our job market is good and we are growing in a healthy way, it tends to be a plus for the global economy. and i think we have experienced in that way. fareed: thanks. >> i studied economics at columbia business school. my question would be, the political effect of the economic increase of the past years. and the association of governors and the clinton campaign recently, my question would be, so at this point, the decision-making process will do more political and less technical, as we have seen in the u.s. supreme court. fareed: ben, do you want to take that? it is interesting. i think you had 30 senators vote against your confirmation, the highest ever. and janet, you had roughly 30

people vote against you. has the fed become more politicized? mr. bernanke: well i sit here next to paul volcker, the fed has always had little pressures at various times. the fed is trying to do the right thing. and sometimes the right thing is not what everybody agrees on. so, yeah, i understand that there is political pressure out there. many people aren't happy with the economy. obviously, they were very unhappy with the economy a few years ago. i think all the fed can do is try to do the right thing for the economy and hope that a better economy will make people, you know, more open. and also to be as transparent as possible. one of the important goals -- we talked about communication, many purposes including clarity of the market and the like. but one of the purposes is to explain why you are doing what you're doing, and hope that people who are paying careful attention will understand and appreciate the decisions you

take and why you are taking them. fareed: paul? mr. volcker: a comment about congressional reactions. i had no votes against me. when i was reappointed, i had the perfect situation. 12 right wing republicans were against me. and 12 left wing democrats were against me. [laughter] mr. volcker: so i figured i was in pretty good terrain. [laughter] fareed: sir. >> i'm a third-year phd student in economics. they are usually conditional statements. so, should the fed be more discreet in its announcements in order to avoid ambiguity that might have caused high volatility, how is this reconciling with the potential of raising of credibility? fareed: i will have to ask the man who created the paper

tantrum is you. mr. bernanke: so, the basic principle of trying to be clear and transparent is a very important one. it is true that you have to keep things relatively simple. if there are too many conditional parts of your statement, and sometimes it can be less well understood. in the case of the tape returns i would say the following, if you go back and see what we said, it was very straightforward. we said what we thought we were going to do. and we ended up doing that. also, the effects of the u.s. economy were pretty much nil. the u.s. economy continued to recover. there was essentially no discernible effects of the bond market volatility on the economy. so, i do not view it as being a really bad episode. but i do think it illustrates that communication is very difficult. it is much harder than the textbooks would suggest, if i may say so.

but, it is still important to be clear and to communicate. and as janet understand as well, and as alan was saying, because we can only make conditional statements, essentially, because we have to respond to what is happening in the economy, there is really no way to avoid that kind of conditionality -- data dependence as you talk about policy. >> i studied journalism and computer science at columbia. i want to follow-up, the same effects that the banks are too big to fail, i was wondering how do you support -- [indiscernible] fareed: both questions there, how can this guy who is a regional fed governor make a speech that seems to contradict

what you are saying? ms. yellen: still, when congress decided on the structure of the federal reserve, i think they purposely chose a decentralized structure, with reserve banks and presidents of reserve banks who would be able to take views views, now on regulation and supervision, the responsibility is invested in the board of governors, where the president's do participate in our monetary policy decisions. but they all engage in research, on topics that are of interest to them that they think are important. and we have encouraged that in the federal reserve system. that people have different interests and different points of view. and that diversity of opinion is a positive attribute.

we don't want to fall into groupthink. and i think it is within his purview to look at these issues. >> thank you. so, my name is elaine. i'm a visiting scholar to columbia business school. my question is related to china. it is becoming increasingly important in the global economy. for example, a new establishment of the chair of infrastructure investment bank. and the imf and the reserve currency, with the special drawing rate, so my question is would you comment on the

challenges of the rising currency, versus the u.s. dollar. and to respond how do you like the changes in the coming monetary policy to maintain this dominant position of the u.s. dollar? thank you. fareed: each of you, very quickly. but the question is -- is china's currency likely to be, let's say in the next 15 years the single greatest challenge to the reserve currency status the dollar currently holds. alan, do you want to start us off? china has made extraordinary progress, and it is fairly evident that the yuan is getting close to a floating currency. but the yuan has not been gotten to a point where it is accepted internationally. and the total amount of holdings

of the yuan in international reserves privately is really very small. so, they have a long way to go, and i don't think that the yuan is a significant threat to the dollar, as of yet. but obviously it could be, if in doubt it changes its overall structure, which it is doing very slowly. fareed: paul, do you have any -- mr. volcker: i'm not under sure i -- i'm not sure i understand this business. what are they threatening? the threat of the dollar? [laughter] mr. volcker: the dollar will be an international currency as long as we have stability at at home. i do not follow all the advice of increasing the inflation rate and all --. [laughter] mr. volcker: china is very big.

how big are you looking? 20 years ahead? it will be a lot bigger than the united states 20 years ahead, economically and as well as population. if you look that far ahead. if the rmb currency becomes an international currency, it probably will affect an opening of the chinese economy, which will be good for the world. i don't see why it will hurt us. fareed: but then they say that the united states enjoys significant privileges with the dollar as a reserve currency. mr. bernanke: i don't think that is all true. there are modest benefits. but in any case, the chinese have taken this as a very big symbolic issue. for example, i think the actual economic implications are not very large, but is a very symbolic step. to the extent that the symbolic steps motivate china to reform financial markets and increase liquidity and improve regulation

and the like, these are positive things. these are not things we should be worried about. fareed: is there anything you could say? ms. yellen: janet: i think my colleagues have covered it. thanks. [laughter] fareed: inscrutable, as is appropriate. this is an absolutely fascinating conversation. and a great great honor, for everyone here at international house and for everyone watching. thank you so much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] washington journal, live every day. coming monday morning, we are live at the centers for disease introl and prevention atlanta, georgia as the organization marks its 70th

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next. later, a discussion on the future of the european union. "q&a," mary on sarah bilder looks at the notes that james madison wrote during and after the constitutional onvention of 1787. brian: mary sarah bilder, you have a book called "madison's hand: revising the constitutional convention." what's it about? mary: it's the notes of madison's