Federal Reserve press conference, 2014-09-17 — Chair Janet Yellen

Question (Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press): Thank you. Marty Crutsinger with the Associated Press. Madam Chair, there were two dissents from today’s decision. I’d kind of like to get your thinking on how you treat dissents. I think in Chairman Bernanke’s eight years, the largest number of dissents was three. Do you see two dissents as a yellow-warning flashing light that policy may need to be moderated down the road? How should market participants read the dissents?
Answer: Well, I think it’s very natural that the Committee should have a range of opinion about a decision as crucial as what is the right time to begin to normalize policy, and we do have a range of views in the Committee. I don’t consider two dissents to be an abnormally large number. Presidents Plosser and Fisher have been quite clear in all of their speeches recently in stating that they think the time has come to begin normalizing policy. I think they, perhaps, have some concerns that if we don’t begin to do so soon that inflation will pick up above levels we—that they would consider desirable, or that they have some financial stability concerns. But the Committee adopted today’s statement by an overwhelming majority, and I don’t consider the level of dissent to be surprising or very abnormal.

Question (Peter Barnes, Fox Business): Peter Barnes of Fox Business, ma’am. I would like to follow up on Greg’s question about Europe, because tomorrow Scotland is going to be voting on independence from Great Britain, and there’s some concern that if it does vote to break from Great Britain, that this could cause some turmoil in global financial markets and the global economy. Are you concerned about that? Do you see any impact if Scotland does vote for independence on the European economy and potentially on the American economy? And, if so, is the Fed doing anything in preparation for that possibility? Thank you.
Answer: Well, Scottish voters are about to go to the polls tomorrow, and they’ve had a good debate about this topic. And in light of that, I really don’t want to weigh in on this today.