ms. yellen: i certainly am.e have laid out, as has been indicated, a strategy for how we will wind down our balance sheet. we have made clear that eventually, we want a substantially smaller balance sheet. and at the present time, we hold a large quantity of mortgage-backed securities, agency, fannie and freddie, mortgage-backed securities. eventually, we would like to go back to an all-treasury portfolio, but we will do it in the manner that ben just explained. we have shown -- the move in december showed we have the tools and ability to successfully manage short-term interest rates. we moved them up not a lot, but 25 basis points. that occurred smoothly, in spite of the fact that we had this very large balance sheet. so, we have tools to tighten monetary policy as we think is appropriate for the economy. and we would like to, you know, get a little bit further underway in terms of moving short-term interest rates toward more normal levels before we let -- follow the strategy bin outlined of allowing assets to

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 anniversary. he to experts. dr. and shook it will discuss respiratory threats facing the u.s. and how the anti-vaxx that caused diseases to reemerge. andtalk about prevention control of diseases like ebola and to learn more about bacteria and viruses. and the director for the national center for injury prevention and equal -- prevention and control, on the latest on the heroin epidemic in the center's work t

ms. yellen: certainly am. we have laid out, as has been indicated, a strategy for how we will wind down our balance sheet. we have made clear that smallerly, we want a balance sheet. and at the present time, we hold a large quantity of mortgage-backed securities, fannie and freddie, mortgage-backed securities. eventually, we would like to go back to an all-treasury portfolio, but we will do it in the manner that ben just explained. we have shown -- the move in december showed we have the tools and ability to successfully manage short-term interest rates. we moved them up not a lot, but 25 basis points. that occurred smoothly, in spite of the fact that we had this very large balance sheet. so, we have tools to tighten monetary policy as we think is appropriate for the economy. and we would like to, you know, get a little bit further underway in terms of moving short-term interest rates toward more normal levels before we let -- follow the strategy ben outlined of allowing assets to run off our balance sheets. i

ms. yellen: i was say the u.s. economy is made tremendous progress in recovering from the damage from the financial crisis. market is surely the healing. jobs a average 225,000 month. unemployment stands at 5%. to ourcoming close assigned congressional goal of maximum employment. inflation, which my colleagues spent much of their time as chair bringing inflation down from unacceptably high levels for a number of years, it has been running under our 2% goal. we are focused on moving it up to 2%. we think it is partly transitory , the strong dollars responsible for pulling inflation below the 2% level we think is most desirable. we are making progress as well. on a solideconomy course. not a bubble economy. attried carefully to look evidence of potential financial instability that might be brewing. some of the hallmarks that clearly overvalued asset prices, high leverage, and rapid credit growth. we don't see those imbalances. rates are low, it can encourage and reach for yield behavior, i went and described this as

ms. yellen: i don't think it is true. charged byare congress with regulating financial institutions and we take that mission seriously, and our tough supervisors and talk to bankers, of course, on a regular basis. required, and we have bodies like the federal that jamieuncil gorman has served on, where we meet to exchange views and understand the perspectives of bankers. but we are very focused on regulating the banking system in a way that will achieve congress' goals. chairman bernanke, can i ask you about something that i suspect if i ask janet yellen, she would be even more evasive than she has been in the last few minutes, which is of course entirely what you are supposed to do, and i respect and admire it. [laughter] about every seven years, there is a recession. that is roughly how long these recoveries last. we're about seven years since the last recovery. statistically, we are due for a recession. nobody has ever been able to predict these. the fed has not. the cbo has not. if there is a recession, traditionally

ms. yellen, has been much more open than fed governing bodies of the past. >> yes, absolutely. in a way this is a victory for transparency. these contributions are in the federal election commission records, they're there for anybody to see. nobody's hiding anything here with this one. so there are those who support brainard's position and say, if she's a democrat, why shouldn't she be a democrat and act like democrats do in washington? so that's the counter argument that, hey, at least nobody's hiding anything in all this. >> thank you, have a great weekend, emoney javers. >> american area lines buying back $2 billion worth of shares. "market focus." the largest u.s. airline by some measures said low fuel prices have helped profits grow but the company pointed out revenue was pressured by competition and softness in travel to and from latin america. shares of the airline down 4.5% on the day at 38.21. >>> another ipo opened for trading today and it's one of the first tech companies to do so in months. secure works, the cyber security arm of dell, initially hoped to price its s

ms. yellen said. we have earnings season monday. alcoa comes out right after the bell. she made it clear, i don't recall a fed chair saying that, she's worried about earnings this period. i think that is also weighing on the market today. liz: you would think earnings drive it, but often with stocks elliott, lately, it's been oil. that trait trade, that oil correlated to stocks trade seems to be loosening. we see oil slightly higher today. coal temperatures on the east coast. it's about 32, thank you very much, middle of april, annoying. but what do you think happens here with crude? >> i will say this, a month ago i said i do not buy into the whole oil and stock thing at all. i still don't. i look for crude to continue lower. it's easy to say now, we were $40 and it was sort of a gift to traders, like a great selling opportunity. i would look at natural gas because it rallied inexplicably to the short burst of cold weather. liz: nat gas is lower by 2.5%, and thinking to myself, my gosh, how much lower can it go, and why isn't my utility company cutting my prices on ene

ms. yellen: i certainly wouldn't describe this as a bubble economy. we have relatively weak global growth, but the u.s. economy is doing well and domestic strength has been propelling us forward in spite of the fact that we are suffering a drag from the global economy. china is very big. it is going to be a lot bigger than the united states, economically, as well as population. if the rmb becomes an international currency, it probably will reflect an opening of the chinese economy, which might be good for the world. mr. bernanke: there's no sense in which expansions die of old age. the risk of a recession is more or less constant every year. though we can't forecast them, there's no reason to think that just because we've been seven years of recovery, doesn't mean that we are due for another recession at all. mr. volcker: the data -- mr. greenspan: the data that i see is that productivity slowed down pretty much a close -- across the globe as a result of capital investment pretty much everywhere slowing down to a as thecant extent percent of gdp has b