mr. bernanke, who h -- whose work in this job i greatly admire, was one of the highest ranking appointees on economic matters by president bush. it was mr. bush who appointed him to the federal reserve. he is an example of bipartisanship. and what i find a lot of my colleagues like bipartisanship, they just haven't found something about it they want to tolerate. mr. bernanke's concern for inflation and unemployment is a big one. the notion we should say, okay, to the federal reserve, you don't pay attention to unemployment, we'll handle that and you should simply try to prevent inflation invites them to impose an interest rate machine which would be unfortunate. by the way, i would contrast the federal reserve under our dual mandate with the european central bank until recently with the unitary mandate of just inflation. i think frankly the federal reserve's record of trying to balance the economy has been a better one, and to some extent the european central bank is improved because they almost explicitly have been following the model of the u.s. federal reserve which has cooperated with

mr. bernanke, do you do your own shopping at the grocery store why did congressman paul ask that? >> he pointing out the price of food has been increasing in recent years. and when the fed talks about the amount of inflation they want to see that they want prices and wages to increase no more than 2% per year. food is increasing more than that, and the fed does not include food prices in the calculation of inflation, because the food prices fluctuate up and down. same reason they don't include gas price in that measure. and for ordinary americans buying food or gas and living their lives, inflation can feel much more significant than the numbers show. challenging mr. bernanke saying that isn't inflation actually more of a problem than the fed is acknowledging. >> another benjamin applebaum tweet. bringing an ounce of silver to the hearing. what was that about? >> well, senator paul has a long history of arguing dr. paul, and that is that american currency should be exchanged for precious metals which it was for a long time and it was the called the gold standard which we went off

that they care which i thought was kind of him using ok let's switch gears and not by hammering mr bernanke i want to talk about m.f. global because mr rogers you said very early on that m.f. global broke the sacrosanct rules and the commodities market taking money out of segregated accounts mr rogers it has been five months since m.f. global declared bankruptcy customers are still missing their money. is still walking free there had not met a lot of consequences i'm curious where is this leading are we going to see next that you know chase customers wake up one morning and see that there is money taken from their accounts from j.p. morgan is that the message is sending well it might wear away but this is sending a terrible message to the world you're never supposed to touch your segregated accounts that's the first rule one learns in the commodities business and somebody charge the money that's. large this is a bigger issue you know nobody's going to jail. in the thirty's a lot of people with the president of the new york stock exchange went to jail in the ninety's when we had the you know

mr. bernanke accommodating a monitory poll pcy will be needed. bernanke speaking at the economic policy conference th morning in arlington, virginia. >> it may be at least in part the layoffs that occurred in early 2008 and 009. to the extent of this reversal complete, further improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more rapid expansion and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policyes. >> with that, the u.s. dollar fell sharply against the euro, following comments. traders interpreted those comments to mean the fed will keep interest rates near zero until 2014 as has been promised. lower rates tend to weigh on currency by reducing returns investors get from holding it. the euro trading higher versus the dollar. >>> another red flag, national association of realtors, unexpectedly declined half percent in february from the month before. the south posted the worst sales decline while the midwest clocked biggest increase. take a short break. then dividend were the popular

mr. bernanke's speech. he's not ready to abandon his easy money policy despite an improving jobs picture. kelly evans has the fallout. >> the fed chief certainly seemed to leave the option open saying more stimulus to boost the economy may be need today keep the unemployment rate from staying permanently high in something that's known as historysis. >> further significant improves will require more rapid production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies. >> continued accommodative policies. the question is just what form they might take. another round of buying treasuri treasuries? could it be mortgage backed securities this time? expect more details at the fed's april meeting if not sooner. by the way, stocks may be up but it's hardly encouraging that four years after the financial crisis this market still can't seem to stand on its own. >> tyler. >> kelly, thank you very much. you know, bob pisani said he didn't like it when numbers we

mr. bernanke. i think he has learned from experience and i think he is a very, very smart man for a very long time. he is a very smart man. so actually i take my hat off to mr. bernanke. both as governor and as chairman of the board of governors, in fact he is a hero of the piece i'm presenting in a couple weeks time for the gic. >> well get to that, peter, you are of course, an exofficial before you joined deutsche bank, 26 years in the fed and an economist in the open market for that time. could you give the case for the fed? nobody has yet mentioned what some would describe is the ultimate cause a opposed to the global financial imbalance, is that a factor? >> let's go back maybe a bit further and look at a slightly larger picture and go back maybe to the early 1980s where the fed was fighting a major inflation, the last time we had a near great recession, with unemployment getting up well to the double digits and the volcker decision, that kicked off a bull market for bonds and stocks. inflatio

mr. bernanke has agreed with president obama that the european situation is one of the major threats to our being able to continue our recovery and at a time when it is generally recognized by economic analysts that america did a better job of dealing with the crisis than europe and where america has been helpful in trying to get europe to move but where there were still serious problems, the chairman says, no, it's america's fault. that europe should be apparently the example for us. even though if you look at developed world economies today, america is performing far better than any of the european economies. the european economies are not doing nearly as well in economic growth as we are, but the chairman would rather make a partisan attack on the administration. when he does get to the international situation, it does seem to me he gets it very wrong. he does acknowledge that there is some impact from the european debt crisis, but he is somewhat critical of our efforts to tede with it, particularly the imf. the notion that we should use our voting power on the international monetary fun

mr. bernanke, thank you for being here today. in your testimony and written remarks, there are some things coming from michigan, a very hard-hit state that is struggling to come back in this stagnant economy. there are some things that bear repeating. on page, i believe, 2. the economy appears to have been growing during that time frame at or below its long-term trend. continued improvement in the job market is likely to require stronger growth and final demand and production. notwithstanding the better recent data, the job market remains far from normal. the unemployment rate remains elevated, long-term unemployment is still near record levels, and the number of persons working part-time for economic reasons is very high. i go on. fundamentals to support spending continue to be weak. real household and economic wealth were flat in 2011 and much credit remained strict for several borrowers. two questions and then i'll be quiet and listen. the first is, in terms of the credit still not getting to potential borrowers, what specific

mr. bernanke will start sweating a little bit?tion is whether rates are going up because the economy is getting stronger, or because of inflation pressures, as david pointed out. almost every raw material is going up. and outside the u.s., labor even in china has gone up double digits, 20% per year. so the question is, can u.s. companies pass through price increases when the consumer has no wage increase. that's where we've had this problem in demand in the u.s. i think that's really going to put a damper on u.s. gdp growth. >> markets change when beliefs change. there were three strikes that are going to be thrown at the markets 10, 12 weeks ago. china was going to have a hard landing. we're a little higher than david is. we're at 8.4% for this year. he's below 8%. u.s. double dip, and number three, there was going to be a meltdown lehman style in europe. all three of those pitches had not come over the strike zone. they've been three balls. >> what about europe, is that still an issue? >> it definitely is, maria. that's one of t

mr. bernanke sounded somewhat gloomy about the did your ability of the economy.e seemed to play up the risks. now, i want to ask you today we got some blockbuster numbers. car sales up 15.1 million in february, a blowout number. chain stores from retailers up almost 7% year on year. so what is it, up or down? >> well, i think what ben is saying is don't pop the champagne corks quite yet. it depends what you look at. we've had some weaker numbers that have come out recently, some of the recent consumption numbers overall haven't been that strong, the durable good numbers, firm inventment not that strong, labor market numbers have been pretty strong. i think it's uncertain and i think that's the message that ben's been giving for a while. we're not quite sure whether the economy is going to sustain itself. >> all right. so he defended heartily his zero interest rate policy out through 2014. he defended it heartily. people on wall street are saying, i'm not sure where they get this, that qe3 is off the table. >> the market reaction is so kwong they thought qe3 would

mr. bernanke is necessarily going to be controlling this thing as much as he thought. steve's comment about pushing on a string there is the applicable phrase there. >> bond yields are at the highest level in more than four months. if yields keep going higher, that represents some competition to stocks, i think that's what you're saying, right, phil? >> right. >> but what bob is saying is absolutely accurate. even four-month high on yields are still talking about really rock bottom. >> remember a week ago, some traders were talking about the ten-year it wo could go to 10.25. now the next thing is, what's the next level where the fed, where mr. bernanke will really get nervous. >> it is well to remember, there's a lot of money that's been in bonds that doesn't belong there because it is seeking safety. and i think that that -- that is still the issue right now. money comes out of bonds into stocks. you get a wealth effect. so i don't think that things happen in a vacuum. just because there are higher rates doesn't mean the rate can't go up and economy can't go better. >

mr. bernanke ahead of his class. here's his take on the economy. >> if a student raises his hand and asked how is the world going to be different for me, the economy going to be different for me when i fwraj wait what are you going to tell him? >> the economy is still very challenging. unemployment is still high. that makes -- creates problems for everybody, obviously, you know. that's -- that's the honest answer. but i think the -- the longer-term prospects for the country are very good. and ultimately things will normalize. but in the short run, of course, we're still dealing with important challenges. >> and steve also asked the chairman about the recent jump in interest rates and whether that might force the fed's hand to boost rates before 2014. he would only say that the fed continues to watch the economy closely. steve is now in class with mr. bernanke and he'll have much more coming up on "street signs" at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. >> sitting up there in the front row, i'm sure. >> i'm sure he is. >>> to politi

mr. bernanke who has a role in supervising that system. he said that he did not have a national security adviser at the federal reserve and would want to hear from elements of the government that do focus on national security, whether it is in our interest, not just to exclude some iranian bank s but all iranian bank s from the swift system thus furtherer isolating iran's financial system. perhaps you can respond here as to whether you would advise the chairman to do everything possible to exclude all iranian bank s from the swift system? >> yes, we would. and we believe that using the swift system is a very effective way of further isolating iran and the iranian flow of financial transactions. so, we will engage with the federal reserve in itemterms of providing such information and with respect to all the other questions we will get back to you in a timely manner. >> i hope your advice to bernanke is all the iranian banks not just those that are sanctioned. >> thank you mr. congressman. >> madam secretary, it's nice seeing you again. i u

mr. bernanke. we're having a debate, as you know, in congress with the level of t d we ould be pursuing or should it be investment, putting it in broad terms. and on the investment side have it be something where, in the short term we try to maintain low interest rates and rebuild our economy, but have a long-term plan to make for a sustainable fiscal future? on this question of austerity, the budget that's recently been introduced, i think it has implicit in it two assumptions. one is that austerity will be beneficial to growth and the budget that's been proposed in the house for our consideration would cut spending across the board in many of the domestic nondiscretion -- the domestic discretionary areas. infrastructure, housing, medical research, education. it would fence off the pentagon. in fact, sequester cuts would be avoided. so, number one, the implicit assumption is that austerity is the path in this budget, the path to progress and growing. the second assumption in this budget appears to

mr. chairman. and thank you, sect geithner and chairman bernanke for being here. every country and every culture, of course, is very different and it's very risky to go looking at cultures whether it's greece or some cultural country that you perhaps admire. i want to -- i do want to ask you about germany. we are -- there are some in the congress who believe that the way out of our present recession and dilemma is to impose draconian cuts repeatedly. even forsaking the budget deal, that was very difficult to reach was reached at a huge sacrifice, the loss of our aaa rating. the -- i look to europe. this was a worldwide recession. and look at the difference among the various countries. the british seem to have adopted something of that approach. approach to emphasize retrenchment over growth. i'm intrigued by germany. everybody's favorite example of the strongest economy in europe, perhaps the strongest in the world today. and do not understand and believe we need to come to grips with the theory that they have embraced during this recession. they are one of the fe

mr. bernanke, when that starts getting spread around and that increases when the whole economy revives, weee a serious, serious doubt in inflation. >> you know, when you have companies saying it, and they're in the fight, every day. i'd sooner trust them than i would an academic or anyone else. >> and that actually can cause even more inflation. >> yes, yes, exactly, exactly. >> and that's what ben bernanke is worried about, he has to go out there and cover his eyes and say, i don't he see any inflation because he's trying to tamp down the-- >> so, he keeps covering something else and subsidizing this. >> and part of it, what ben was saying, it's companies and consumers, think inflation is coming down the road, they will change their behavior today, that actually create more inflation. >> very good. >> like raising prices in the pipeline to ensure that their margins don't get squeezed because prices go up in the future. we could be in the beginning of a very dangerous cycle. >> think about why he's doing what he's doing. >> who? >> ben bernanke, i mean, this is the reason, i mean, all of t

mr. bernanke sent you a check? >> yes. >> thank him for it. let me ask you now. e i said before. we had a comparison of the economy towards this advantage. in terms of growth over the last couple of years, what's the comparison between the american and european? even the german are the best. what's the general comparative view? zbr u.s. growth is averaging in the early years of recovery roughly 2.5%. probablily twice the rate in growth as a whole. and significantly stronger than japan. so it is fair to say that we're far ahead of europe in dealing with the united states. and our economy is looking better on really every measure. than certainly the average. >> last question. there's been a lot of concern about american banks exposure to european financial institutions with credit default swaps, et cetera. if the financial reform bill that was signed in law in 2010 had been signed in law two years earlier, would that have had the effect of lessening the concern we might have today? >> absolutely. absolutely. if they were in place three or five years before, the crisis was less much

mr. bernanke, would you tell me whether you do your own shopping at the grocery store? why did congressman paul ask that? >> well, congressman paul is pointing out that the price of food has been increasing quickly in recent years. food prices fluctuate quite a bit and down. same reason that they don't include gas prices in that measure. but what mr. paul is basically noting is that for all you americans buying food, buying gas, living their daily lives, inflation can feel more in force than the numbers show. actually much more of a problem than he's acknowledged. >> thank you, benjamin. his work is available online at nytimes.com. >>> for the first time in seve months, the president is sitting down with a bipartisan session. this is the firsteting since last summer's debt consolidation. that meant senate republican lead leader the house speaker john boehner that left out the house. you may note that last summer, the president and the republican leader of the house encounter during the debt ceiling talks. eric canter repeatedly interrupted the president during the end o

economy is very much in recovery mode and let's not forget that it's because of that fact that mr bernanke he was able to announce yesterday that the prospects for a third round of course that of easing were less than they might previously had seemed so it's not that the absence of q.e. is going to choke off the recovery it's rather that the fracture of recovery is going to choke off q.e. . i list see how the u.s. market is opens up they are indeed open up for business right now says the how the day they are and even positive territory as the labor market continues to improve that as for brush with now. and they closed up in the red as you can see the artist and the my six both in negative territory so we'll see how the stocks got on gas prom closed in the red blue color was down after reporting the net income rose fifteen percent to ten billion dollars on the back of high prices but the result came. this fall car so that's why they're in there bit of a territory and agricultural. it was one of the best performers of the day but they are indeed in the red as you can see there let's head ov

economy is very much in recovery mode and let's not forget that it's because of that fact that mr bernanke he was able to announce yesterday that the prospects for a third round of quantitative easing were less than they might previously have seen so it's not that the absence of q.e. is going to choke off the recovery it's rather that the fracture of recovery is going to choke off q e. ok now we know that there was strong anticipation of q e three but is it fair to say that the market reaction was short lived so therefore it is slightly new now. have a lot of. how much does it not. well it doesn't matter quite so much let's give an example here in in just over half an hour we're going to get the latest read on u.s. manufacturing industry will likely to find that for thirty first consecutive month that's almost three full years for thirty one consecutive months the u.s. manufacturing industry has been expansion territory we've seen that over the last five months the u.s. employment has risen by almost a million over that same period we've seen almost a one and a half percentage point drop i

mr. bernanke said is not feasible in a modern economy. >> well, good afternoon. think the students here may know who i am, but for those watching the broadcast, i am steve knap, president of the george washington university. it's really a pleasure to welcome you to today's first class in a series entitled reflections on the federal reserve and its place in today's economy featuring the chairman of the federal reserve, dr. ben bernanke. i am pleased to acknowledge that we have with us two of the number of falculty members. some of them will be teaching later in the series. today is the first university lecture series delivered by a sitting chairman of the federal reserve. and i think it does provide an extraordinary opportunity for the students who are here in the classroom, but also for those watching online who have an opportunity to gain insight into the nation's central banking system and a wide range of issues that affect this country and the world. i do want to say there are microphones available for the students and certainly encourage you when the chairman

economy is very much in recovery mode and let's not forget that it's because of that fight mr bernanke he was able to announce yesterday that the prospects for a third round of quantitative easing were less than they might previously seemed so it's not that the absence of q is going to choke off the recovery it's rather that the facts of recovery is going to choke off q.e. . let's see how the markets are doing then we'll see how the u.s. markets are performing at this hour as you can see both the dow jones and the nice like are indeed in positive territory at this hour is a great different picture for the russian markets though they finished in the red today as you can see stocks falling from a seven month high i listen with the individual chairman's as you have read as you can see just. luke all closed in the red after reporting its net income rose to the third ten billion dollars on the back of high prices but the result. which is why you're looking at a red color russkie vote was the top before the fall of a disappointing finish let's head over to europe and see how they. they are i

mr. bernanke comes back for the second appearance this year, we will begin where we left off so members who don't ask a question today, we will start from there and they will get to ask the question the second time. thank you. >> miss waters, we hope you continue this kor jalt. >> i'm interested in housing. everyone agrees this economy is not going to rebound until the housing market is vigorously operating. i want to find out what's happening with the servicers and maybe something about principal reduction. on february 9th the federal reserve assessed monetary penalties totaling 776 million on the five largest mortgage servicers pursuant to the orders you issued in april of 2010. they happen to be part of the settlement between the state attorneys general and the federal government announced on the same day. as i understand it, the penalties paid by the servicers issued by fed can be satisfied by loan mottifications that they make under the state ag settlement. in other words, unless the servicers fail to comply with the settlement with ags,le there will be no monetary penalty servicing vi

mr. bernanke to increase the fed's engagement with the general public.appeared twice on "60 minutes." he's held town hall meetings with college students and he's held regular news conferences which we carry here on the c-span networks. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. et

economy is very much in recovery mode and let's not forget that it's because of that fact that mr bernanke he was able to announce yesterday that the prospects for a third round of course to be easing were less than they might previously had seemed so it's not that the absence of q is going to choke off the recovery it's rather that the fracture of recovery is going to choke off q e. ok we're going to head to the u.s. market now and see what's going on now it opens up in positive territory and that's where it remains at this hour as you can see the dow jones and the nasdaq both adding we're going to see now how the russian markets close is completely different story here are closed up in the red there were stocks falling from a seven month high let's see how the individual chinese caught on that. closed in the red as you can see lou called bulls also down a round of course of. another top performer of the month. as disappointing and finished as you can still manage to finish in red territory there despite the announcement by the bank that it has to buy parts of the company we're going to h

houses and these are smart guys so i think i would i would tend to side with them as opposed to mr bernanke you maybe will end up with them for name contrary and jack's eric maybe that's next the wii's the guy that aside i want to go more into housing you have been writing about it you mentioned it just now we just got numbers out earlier this week from case shiller showing that housing prices if we can bring them up are back to two thousand and three levels so this was just the news that we got out earlier this week but then you show that when you look at median home price in terms of per capita disposable income it's actually much worse than we can bring up those numbers too because we have a chart from you eric and it shows that they're lower than they have been in forty years if we could bring that up eric tells us what is the opportunity here. right well i mean obviously out of that i would start by saying i have i have no crystal ball i mean maybe the housing market falls from a decade i really have no idea what but what but what i think appealing about the housing market is that it i

loose monetary policy did not cause the housing bubble oh yeah ok we've got a reality check for you mr bernanke until then don't forget to follow me on twitter out lauren lyster get back at you tube dot com slash capital accounts and from everyone here have a great night. if . i'm. coming.

it to ben bernanke you have to go for i don't know you know i haven't spoken to mr bernanke today one or jamie dimon for that matter of i don't i mean it's been characterized as this and i don't know jimi guy i'm just kind of seems like a honey badger has just doesn't care if he's a man's dog doesn't care i mean it's all good order why don't you put out that letter to his employees today right after we had this goldman sachs employee that is to quit in such a public matter right this scathing op ed in the new york times and then he releases a letter to his employees saying you know don't take advantage of our competitors woes but i was probably just sending a silent you know quiet warning not to do the same thing goes. for you know don't you don't do this to me. thanks for joining me. are going to take our last break the evening when we come back we'll be handing out our daily tools on wards to achieve that if they sort of use women to take a stroll down memory lane of heading for the hills and on happy hour if you want to be a states rick santorum thinks that you need to speak englis

lose monetary policy did not cause the housing bubble oh yeah ok we've got a reality check for you mr bernanke eat until then don't forget to follow me on twitter out lauren lyster get that feedback at you tube dot com slash capital accounts and for everyone here had a great night. in the. news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations rule today. the buddha. download the official policy of location and join a phone i pod touch from the i choose i'm still. life on the go. video on demand on season one the old costs an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. wealthy british.

mr. chairman, and welcome, chair man bernanke. it's always a pleasure to hear you because you are eminently sane about all these issues. i have heard from our life insurers and granters and providers of annuities that they're very concerned, as you can imagine, about an interest rate squeeze that may occur in the future. it almost feels predictable in certain respects. how do you recommend that they proceed, that they anticipate the challenges that we're facing because of the way in which we have to have an accommodative monetary policy? >> well, we've had numerous discussions with insurance companies and pension funds and others, and there certainly is a problem in the sense that they're -- under current accounting rules, their obligations to put money in the funds can be greater with lower interest rates. i agree that's a problem and once we've discussed with them. again, going back to my conversation with miss cotter on the other side, we're trying to strengt strengthen the economy that will give them higher returns on their po

mr. bernanke holds a lot of power, that historic figure behind the curtain in "the wizard of oz" and when doesn't say things and most people can't understand either side of that equation, he can move markets but the ltro, europe and the uk probably were a little more blunt about certain issues, and i think that he was just kind of included in that ven diagram. back to you. >> rick, on a different subject, if you were a credit default swap buyer and you were going to get, you saw something go to 40or 50 cents on the dollar, would you be miffed or buy another one? does that seem fair? >> reporter: let me sell you something. if you ever have a chance to read the rules and how they delegate it to certain committees and people that represent certain groups on who ultimately decides what's a credit event and what isn't, i'd personally, i don't believe in regulation. let people buy whatever they want to buy. if you're asking me would i buy something, would i get a haircut like that and somebody from up above behind another curtain says default, no default? not on your life! >> do you think that

mr. bernanke is worried about unemployment. he's not going to take his foot off the pedal, folks, that's the take away that everybody had. mr. bernanke is worried about slowing unemployment, he didn't say anything about qe-3. you want to understand ben bernanke, read essays on the great depression, read his book on the causes of the great aggressi depression. it wasn't the market crash, it was the failure of the the fed to act. he's not going raise rates prematurely. and everybody says it will be too late down the road. inflation will be out of control. that's the naysayers. mr. bernanke is convinced that he's got to keep his foot on the pedestal. >> he lays out exactly what he's going to do and the market kind of got what it was looking for. >> we didn't hear anything about qe-3. >> we're up 1 hunter poi00 poin ground already. let's play the economy improving game, let's forget about the qe-3 game. have you seen the hope for second quarter for the stock market? is the s&p is up 11%. it was up 11% in the prior quarter, and the

mr. bernanke is more can have debt that core inflation excluding items such as food and energy will stay within the 2% target. >>> all in all, nina, a pretty upbeat assessment for ben bernanke who is known for his cautiousness when it comes to the economy. this is what the futures markets looks like. this is what's expected the market to look like when it opens in five or so hours trading for now. i'm not getting my words out the right order. i'm going to head back to you. i can't do this. >> you're not the only one, andrew. it's early over here in the morning in london. i have more an excuse for that. coming up next on "world business today." we're on the campaign trail in the united states where rick santorum has swept to victory in the states of alabama and mississip mississippi. we'll tell you what it means for the race for the republican nomination. that's next here on cnn. but now, with zyrtec-d®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. zyrtec-d® lets me breath freer, so i can love the air. [ male announcer ] zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter.

mr. bernanke, thank you for being here. in your testimony and written remarks there are some things coming from michigan, a very hard-hit state that is struggling to come back in this economy. there are -- there are some things that bear repeating. on page, i believe, two. "the economy appears to have been growing at that time frame or below its long-term trend. mdot -- continued improvement in the long-term market will require stronger growth and production. notwithstanding the recent data, the job market remains far from normal. the unemployment rate remains elevated. long-term unemployment is still near record levels, and the number of persons working part- time for economic reasons is very high. the fundamentals that support spending continue to be weak. real household income and wealth were flat in 2011, but access to credit remained restricted for many potential borrowers. consumer sentiment that dropped sharply last summer has since rebounded, remains a relatively low." my concern is that -- just a question about how

mr. bernanke with the inference, or at least our inference, that they would continue the quantitative easingo do is push the dollar lower. lately, you know what happened, when the euro goes higher, the stock market in the united states goes higher. as the euro is up to about a three and half week high against the dollar, we show you the dow today. we are about at the highs of the session with a gain of 1.17% back to 13,233 and of course, the nasdaq was even better percentage wise. so when stocks go higher, where is the money coming from? in some cases, to the treasury. the yield is going higher today though we haven't come off the high in the session here and yield on ten-year at 2.24% at 337 on the 30-year bond today. gold had a pretty good rally we are up -- excuse me, oil first of all, at $107. this hasn't participated as much. and yet analyst are scrambling to figure out why you aren't getting a better oil rally when have you the dollar down as much as it was and stocks higher. usually energy is a leader for the stock market but you didn't get that today. i won't bore you with all of the

mr. bernanke, thank you for being here today. and written remarks, there are some things coming from michigan, a very hard hit states struggling to come back in this stagnant economy. there are some things that bear repeating. on page two, "the economy appears to have been growing at the time frame at or below its long-term trends. continued improvement in the job market is likely to include a jump in production. notwithstanding, it remains far from normal. the unemployment rate remains elevated. long-term unemployment is still near record levels. the number of persons working time -- part-time for economic reasons is very high." it goes on. real household income and wealth are flat in 2011. access to credit remains restricted from any potential borrowers. consumer sentiment has rebounded but remains relatively low. now, two questions and then i will be quiet and listen. in terms of the credit, still not getting potential borrowers. what specifically do you think the reason for that is? what you think can be specifically done by

mr. bernanke did not eliminate the possibility of qe 3 and left the door open. today we're sort of left with the fallout from that. a couple of comments here, brian. number one on your natural gas, there's a problem. warm weather. too much gas out there. and too much gas that's in storage. also, remember, these exploration production companies have become very efficient at drilling. they can drill a lot more. they can drill less, rather, and get a lot more gas these days. the efficiency of these companies are up. the last few days they've been under pressure. by the way, they haven't had a horrible year. just recently as we've been seeing the supplies away, they've been in trouble. natural gas names, these are drilling companies really out there, they're on the downside. elsewhere there's just an ocean of analysis going on about the supreme court and health care. of course, yesterday some of these stocks moved up on some expectations that there might be an attempt for the supreme court to limit president obama's health care reforms. hmo stocks yesterday moving t

mr. bernanke said? >> absolutely not.dd/frank is a terrible piece of financial legislation that didn't address any of the causes of the crisis that we just went through. it won't prevent the next crisis. volumes and volumes of regulations. the bigger banks can absorb it, the smaller banks can't. i would not be surprised to see half of the community banks in this country go out of business if we don't give some relief from dodd/frank for them. it's a terrible burden on them. >> what i hear all the time is the consumer financial protection agency, whatever it's called the elizabeth warren thing, which has no regulation, it gets us money from the fed. it's interfering already. with lending, paypal, car loan, things of that sort. is any of that stuff true? from your experience? >> absolutely, i think lending has tightened up as people said it would. and let me go back to the capital issue. the reason why banks have a lot of excess capital right now is they don't have anything to do with it. the loan growth has been non-existe

mr. bernanke? >> i would -- i would call him a realist, larry. i don't think he falls on either side of it. i think he pays very careful attention to the markets and what the markets are telling him and responds accordingly. >> all right. >> i think he has been very much in favor. his principle goal, i think, is transparency. >> all right. we're going to leave it there. mark olson, former member of the federal reserve board. appreciate it very much. thanks for helping us. we've got another stress to talk about. next up, a political stress test. question, will mitt romney show the south he is the most electable republican on the ballot? folks, don't forget, free market capitalism still the best path to prosperity. the kudlow report will be right back. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of

mr. bernanke, if you don't mind, would you tell me whether you do your own shopping at the grocery store?his argument that the prices are going up about 2%, nobody believes it. the fed is going to self-destruct eventually anyway when the money is gone. why can't people save, put this in a mattress? good to see you again. >> the full breakdown of who bernanke is and how his experiences influenced decisions for a monetary policy is detailed in the latest issue of the atlantic a comprehensive cover story peeling back layers of economic thinking and policy making by a man who has already been "time" magazine's person of the year. the author of the piece has reported on finance and the fed for over a decade and joins us from princeton where the fed chairman was once chair of the university's economics department. thanks for coming on. >> good morning, chuck. >> it was largely your piece felt like a very sympathetic piece. here is a man who never thought he was entering the world of politics when he was getting involved with the fed and doing what he was doing, his life's work and studying the

mr. bernanke. what stuck out to you in terms of his testimony? >> there wasn't a lot. yesterday he caught the market's attention when he try today play down any talk about another round of quantitative easing. today even despite that reaction, overreaction some say, he didn't do a lot to walk it back and didn't talk a lot about monetary policy. a lot of questions from the senate really had to do with differences in how the volcker rule being implemented, it was a lot different tone than what we saw yesterday. less focus on monetary policy. he did though talk about weakness in the housing market. i think this is one area to watch when you're talking about how likely it is for another round of quantitative easing. the more likely that is, the more the fed's probably going to talk about the weakness in housing and they may target housing in particular with the next round of purchases. >> on another note, we've all heard about the lipstick indicator. you've come up with a different take. we're going to name it the dentist indicator. >> i was at the dentist earlier this wee