The current state of the U.S. economy and the Fed's response (with reference to irrational exuberance and Virgil's Aeneid)

"Despite the efforts of the Fed, the hope that comes with a new presidency, and what will hopefully be responsible and carefully calibrated fiscal initiatives for the Congress, I believe we have an epic challenge ahead of us. We are navigating the mother of all financial storms. We will certainly come out of it with a lesser number of ships than we entered it with, for we cannot and should not 'relieve the rashness of distress that financiers' and other imprudent decisionmakers 'have brought upon themselves.'" ; Remarks before the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Grapevine, Texas, November 4, 2008.