Janet Yellen Doesn’t Expect A New Financial Crisis In Our Lifetime

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By Robert Donachie

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said Tuesday that she does not believe there will be another financial crisis in our lifetime, largely because of the regulations placed on the banking industry after the Great Recession.

“I do think we’re much safer and I hope that it will not be in our lifetimes and I don’t believe it will be,” Yellen said Tuesday at a question-and-answer event in London.

The Fed chair also said that it “would not be a good thing” if lawmakers decided to roll back the Great Recession-era financial reforms, and called upon those that enacted the reforms to speak out against easing regulations on banks.

President Donald Trump repeatedly promised to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act on the campaign trail, and his administration is already hard at work identifying regulations that it deems unnecessary, duplicative or overly burdensome. (RELATED: Mulvaney Releases Plans For Massive Government Reorganization)

Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the Treasury Department in early February to conduct a thorough review of regulations imposed on the banking and financial sectors after the housing market collapse of 2007.

The U.S. Treasury Department laid out its proposal in early June, highlighting ways in which the administration could go about its deregulatory agenda.

Yellen also said Tuesday that the Fed would continue to raise interest rates at a gradual pace.

“We think it will be appropriate for the attainment of our goals to raise interest rates very gradually to levels that are likely to remain quite low, although there is uncertainty about this, to remain low by historical standards for a long time,” Yellen said.