mr. bernanke. and basically on what you just said. steve, mr. lutnick says the fed doesn't really have many effective tools left. the big one, the big gun, interest rate policy's played out. >> i think that's largely right. i think the fed at this point especially where the 10-year is right now and interest rates in the real economy are, i think the fed could only have a very marginal effect. but it's not, it's why interest rates are where they are right now. and that's because of a serious risk-off trade. you may call it capital flight out of europe. if that were to stop, where would interest rates be right now? and could the fed have an effect on that interest rate? i think it may have more effect there. but bernanke did emphasize the cost and benefits of additional policy. my take was he left the door open but didn't promise to walk through it. >> he certainly didn't it. rick santelli, you said something earlier about an hour ago that struck me. and it was almost that you were sympathic with mr.

mr. bernanke? >> i can tell you immediately. number one question, mr. , it is going to be august. you've laid out a groundwork for qe3. you have told us employment is weak. you toll us inflation is under control. would you do it? would you pull the trigger this close to the elections? will the elections inhibit you at all? that's the thing everybody wants the know down here. >> what did you think of pointing out that outside of politics, you know, just the fact, what if they should have just done nothing? >> i don't think they should have done nothing. i think they probably did the reasonable policy response, the one that most people anticipate right now and i think there's an argument to be made that maybe they need to wait longer and see further evidence and not a strong case still for qe. >> not like headed toward recession. i mean, no one's got recession on the table in these conversations. >> sub par growth may -- in this environment with the things going on globally, the u.s. going notely sub par, that may be grounds itself for some kind of policy

mr. bernanke tomorrow? and second question is, do you think that the economy, given the jobs number we had last week, is in need of some kind of monetary stimulus? >> well, as to the former question, i haven't finalized what i'm going to ask fed chairman bernanke. but i will tell you my concern continues to be that we're using the wrong tool to solve the problem that we have. the problems that are afflicting our economy are driven by excessive and very inprudent and unwise regulation, a threat of massive tax increase and complete unwillingness to deal with a completely unsustainable fiscal policy. the monetary solution is not the right solution to that. i'm worried that inflation could get out of control, could get away from the fed. we see that the current cpi level is already above their target. they've got unprecedented easing. and i'm worried, frankly, that they're willing to throw more at this. i do think the economy is weak. i think the jobs numbers from last week are very, very worrisome. i just thin

mr. bernanke. thank you very much for being with us. i'm going to try to be as brief as i can. i think i have three questions which i would appreciate your answering. number one, first one deals with conflicts of interest at the fed. as you know, jamie diamond is the ceo and chairman of jpmorgan chase, which is the largest financial institution in this country. during the fed bailout, if you like, $116 trillion in low-interest loans over a period of time were given out to every financial institution in this country. jpmorgan chase received over $300 billion of those loans. the american people, i believe, perceive a conflict of interest when you have, among others, the head of the largest financial institution in america sitting on the new york fed wihich is presumably supposed to be regulating the fed, regulating these financial institutions. many people, me, myself, see this as a situation where the fox is guarding the henhouse and that we need real reform in fed to make sure that it's representin

mr. bernanke definitely held your hand.y lowered their growth outlook, and that has people concerned a little bit here. finally i want to note that we're seeing gasoline prices hit sixth month lows today, and that should help consumers lout the hot summer. airlines are also on the upside today. >> thank you, let's look closer at the fed's action once again and the aex after the fed announced the plan to keep the operation twist plan in place. it was sell first ask later initially and then stocks came back as the fed chairman held his news conference, that's when they started to loseground. >> the next guest thinks the fed is almost out of bullets, and bob mctier, thank you for joining us. >> that was one of the questions and i think one of the things that bernanke tried hard to defend, that they're not out of bullets, why do you think they are? >> i share the chairman's view. they're not really out, but they're cautious about using their most valuable tools. they asked why they will not raise the inflation target. the answe

mr. bernanke's testimony from capitol hill. some of what he had to say to congress yesterday. >> what is particularly striking here is this is all pre-programmed. if you all go on vacation, it's still going to happen. so it's important to be thinking about that and working with your colleagues to see how you might address that concern. at the appropriate time. >> all right. let's go back to telephone calls. don is a democrat in kansas city. go ahead, please. >> caller: yes. i believe the way we can get this economy back running is for corporate america to start hiring folks. i believe that it would be their patriotic duty to do so. they have, you know -- they're sitting on the funds. and a lot of ordinary folks have been making a lot of sacrifice and it's time for corporate america to do their part. >> how would that work to take on employees that they might say would hurt bottom line? >> caller: well, the thing is that we always talk about shared sacrifice when we have a crisis in this country and it'd be time for corporate am

mr. bernanke will ask about?uest: ben bernanke has said congress needs to do something to get the fiscal picture in shape. he has steered clear of how to do it. he will be questions on that but you can expect he is getting good at steering clear of that. host: peter schroeder of "the hill" who has been covering finances. he joins us on the phone for this discussion. thank you for your time. guest: my pleasure. host: at 10:00 a.m., you can watch that hearing. ben bernanke in front of the joint economic committee. that is live on c-span3. listen for it on c-span radio and look at it later on c- span.org -- c-span.org. in 25 minutes, we will have representatives loretta sanchez, member of the committee. we will talk to her about what she is looking forward to hearing from burning keep. we are now looking at the bush era tax cuts. hello. caller: good morning. i think tax rates should go up on everybody. maybe just the rich. i am not a rich person. i am a business owner. i do construction work. i hire a lot of people.

mr. bernanke. doctor, you're recognized? >> chairman jordan, member of this committee, its's an honor to appear before you today to talk about the department of energy loan guarantee program. i'm a senior research fellow at george mason university where i study tax and budget issues. advocate for renewable energy are right to be out raged by the large amount of subsidies going to fossil fuels. yet, they're wrong to think that the answer is more subsidies for form of energy that they approve of. the department of energy's 1705 loan guarantee program is a corner stone of the department of energy and the u.s. energy dpt. two dwrounds. first, advocates that the energy companies do not have access to sufficient credit to support new projects. second, the dpt of energy argues that by investing in green technology, it would create up to 5 million green jobs. so how do these claim stand up to scrutiny? looking at the flow of 1705, loan program we find first that nearly 19% of a 1705 loans went to subsidized projects that were backed

mr. chairman. and thank you for joining us today, chairman bernanke. what are some of the risks that accompany quantitative easing? can you walk us through those and help us understand the risk factors you consider as you approach a decision like that one? >> mm-hmm. well, i think a preliminary thing to say is since we have less experience with quantitative easing, our estimates are understanding of its efficacy and exactly how much is needed and so on are less than the traditional monetary policy. but in terms of potential side effects, a number have been identified, but i think the two we would pay most attention to, first, there are some who believe that greatly expanding our balance sheet would make the exit strategy nor difficult and that therefore inflation is more likely and that might lead deflation expectations to go up. i want to be clear we are confident that we can exit in a timely way from our balance sheet strategy and that there is, in fact, no justification for such a concern, but nevertheless, some people might have that concern. so th

mr. bernanke told leaders of congress yesterday the fed is still trying to determine whether or not dirk steps are necessary to bolster economic growth from his group. bernanke did warn congress about the looming fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and those expiring bush tax cuts. >> the potential expiration of the so-called bush tax cuts of 2001-2003 tax cuts is the single biggest item in the fiscal cliff. i'm not necessarily saying that the right thing to do is to extend those cuts. it could be there are other steps you could take that would have a similar impact. but, that is the single biggest component of the so-called cliff. >> taking an early look at the markets as we get all up in your business. cnbc's karen tso is live in london for us. karen, good morning. >> good morning, willie. you take a look at the market reaction to some of the disappointment about qe-3 the markets are up 2% to 3% at the start of the week. markets are getting ahead of themselves hoping for stimulus from the fed. ben bernanke didn't exactly say he's not going to stimulate again but he dampened some of

mr. bernanke surely didn't do in his speech that he gave to the university in washington, d.c., you find out that over the last 150 years, the yououtput of gol annually on average has been approximately 1.5% to 2% per year. i'm talking about over the full century and a half. now, the growth rate of population has been approximately 1.5% to 2%, and the growth rate of output in the developed world has been 1.5% to 2% of output per capita. this is the hidden equation, which established a proportio l proportionality and the stable price level between the gold monetary standard, the population growth, and the general output in the developed world. so it seems to be -- rather, it's a hidden equation because it's never made explicit by the apostles of central banking. but the monetary standard established in gold created a stable price level and conditions for economic growth that were no accident. they were -- it's kind of a product of proportionality between the production of gold output and population. >> i'm going to ask one more question and then open it up a tiny bit for people to come an

your trade and diplomatic missions two decades later he was appointed the russian ambassador there mr bernanke reached the top of his diplomatic career in the late ninety's when he was appointed foreign minister despite several cabinet. kept the procession from six figures. service we've driven off the russians purity council. and now here lectures in the russian foreign affairs university and i have a national. survey of it welcome to our program on the hello. let's start with this is the us in new york press on with their plans in europe they keep saying russia is not any we do not see it is search our steps do not target russia so forgive me but russia does not buy this why so why this is just why is it that these assurances are not enough for us to mishear them every day right. such as russia you see the issue of euro atlantic security has been central to any debate over the past several years. and. in foreign affairs with extensive experience covering both the cold war and the post cold war period. they've come to a common opinion about the reasons for our differences. it is the enduring

which guarantees a return of at least some of your money whatever is not confiscated through what mr bernanke isso euphemistically calls quantitative easing we call it counterfeiting more confrontational folks may refer to it as outright theft some that officials though most notably fed gov janet yellen says there may be more ahead they've been hinting that the central bank may ease yellin in a recent speech to the boston economic club advocated for an extended period of highly accommodative monetary policy these are of course more euphemisms as part of the central bankers efforts to revive the economy believing the economic future of the country rests on their atlee and shoulders look at ben bernanke there but doesn't really and what if you don't trust policymaking academics with track records as bad as the feds to run the economy anyway for example listen to bernanke he today talking about the bank stress tests to also show that even to extremely adverse hypothetical economic scenario most of those firms would remain able to provide credit to u.s. households and businesses. really based on

mr. bernanke. i would like to respectfully speak in opposition to the point of view that has been put forward by my colleagues on the other side of the all in strong opposition. i believe that the fed should use any tool in your arsenal whenever it is to provide support to our fragile economy and we need to ensure against any downward term but would hurt housing, employment and all the very areas in our economy. i think it's particularly important coming up on the june 17th meeting that you act to help our economy given the fact that china cuttage been smart lending rate and already in response to that, the price of gold has gone up. the dollar has fallen. i would like to hear your comments. will china be buying the treasury notes with this economic downturn what appears to be in their economy and combined with the news from the past month that the year rose owned debt and banking crisis seems to have deteriorated further in europe? so could you comment further? you have in many ways but even on ch

mr. bernanke posed testimony from capitol hill, somebody had to say to congress yesterday. [video clip] >> what is particularly striking is this is all pre-programmed. if you all go on vacation, it is still going to happen. it is important to think about that and work with your colleagues to see how you might address that concern at the proper time. host: let's go back to phone calls. donna is a democrat in kansas city. -- don. caller: the way we could get the economy back running is for corporate america to start hiring folks. i believe it would be their patriotic duty to do so. they are sitting on the funds. a lot of ordinary folks have been making a lot of sacrifices and it's time for corporate america to do their part. host: how would that work for corporations to take on employees that they might say would hurt the bottom line? caller: the thing is that we always talk about shared sacrifice when we have a crisis in this country. it's time for corporate america to share in the sacrifice of this country. forget about the bottom line. when we get people working, then we w

mr. bernanke. i'll start with the first round of questions. and i'll set forth the predicate for the question before i ask it. based upon three news items, i'll call them. first of all, we know that china announced just today, i guess, that it has cut its benchmark lending rate for the first time. >> okay. we are going to take one quick break before the q and a gets started. the fed chairman speaking before the economic committee. don't go away. like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis,

mr. bernanke, thank you very much. everything that you've done and for all the thing that is you're engaged in and for also being with us here today to talk about is the issues. i think that we've come a long way considering the financial meltdown that occurred back in 2007. but we've still got a long way to go after that. i think there are still some things that congress must do to ensure we do not go down the same path as our european counterparts. i think that's an interesting set of circumstances. the end of the recession our economy has steadily improved. we're still working hard on that. we have created 4 million private sector jobs and unemployment has steadily decreased to 8.2% now. president obama i think deserves enormous credit for turning the economy around. if it had not been his action and those of the democratic majority, i have no doubt our country would have fallen into a deeper economic depression. so we obviously have a long way to go but the president is on the right path. the fed's aggressive actio

mr. bernanke is printing a lot of the money. >> will the market sell off giving the tax situation?nly has to get through november, next year will be bad, they will raise taxes next year, there are many reasons next year will be bad. >> you're waiting to buy gold? >> if it goes downly buy more and you should too. i know you're not allowed to, but i can. >> great to have you on the program. >> thanks for joining us. >> the dow is up 122 points. >> since news of the big trading loss brook, some say the stock is right here, we're talking jpmorgan next. >>> and it will not be a good day for jamie dimon tomorrow. we want your thoughts on tomorrow's capitol hill questions of mr. dimon. give us your thoughts. tweet us. jimmy is just now rushing to his computer so he can tweet us. we'll get your responses later in the program. >>> a rally in u.s. oil prices helped the energy sector today. a different story overseas though isn't it? >> differently, i love your attention to detail. it is a mixed picture here. we have slightly higher pictures for wti crude. we had a settlement low for present

mr. bernanke. i would like to speak in opposition to the point of view put forward by the colleagues on the other side of the aisle in strong opposition any qe3. the believe the fed should use any tool in your arsenal, whatever it is to provide support to our fragile economy, and we need to ensure against any downward turns that would hurt housing, employment, and all the other areas in our economy. i think it's particularly important coming up on your june 17th meeting, that you act forcefully to help our economy, given the fact that the -- china has cut it benchmark lending rate, and already in response to that, the price of gold has gone up, the dollar has fallen. i'd like to hear your comments on china? will china be buying our treasury notes and combined with the news that the eurozone debt and banking crisis seems to have deteriorated further in europe? should could you comment further on china specifically and the impact china will have on the overall -- really our economy? they have been a

mr. bernanke's speech tomorrow, my question for you, as investors move toward assets and equities such as walmart and my favorite vivicor, he did with turn to futures market and similar trade that goes 55-1, and as a last result -- >> holy cow. >> caller: thank you. >> i'm a fast talker, but have you got me beat. you outtalked me i get the gist what do we do with gold, with the economy, the federal reserve? they want to print more money, give me a brake, not much more they can do. people will buy gold no bhaert what he says. i'm willing to sanction and buy the junior gold miners for trade only. but i always like gld. andrew in maryland, please. >> caller: hey, jim. i enjoy your show doing a really good job. >> thank you. >> caller: a question about round foreman announced earnings today. >> what a smoke show. what a report. they are brushing their teeth with a bottle of jack. that is some quarter. wouldn't believe numbers they had in europe. but he is hitting the scotch. there is nothing like liquor. what do i know? i have to tell you, brown foremforbrown-forman terrific. please, don't ge

mr. bernanke says he expects the nation's unemployment rate to stay at or even above 8% through the rest of this year. >>> there's a new wrinkle concerning one of the original investigators in the trayvon martin case. that story is coming up. >> plus, flooding forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency in part of the upper midwest. >> and ahead in sports, the nationals return to their winning ways on the strength of stephen strasburg's arm. we'll be right back. >>> coming up on 5:08 on this thursday sticky morning. humidity levels are way up there. it's a very tropical feeling. we may set some records today. we're going to shoot toward the near 100-degree mark. in fact, the record is 98 at national. 98 at dulles and 100 in baltimore. our day planner, sunny, hot, humid, isolated storm out west mainly. by noon mid-90s. this afternoon 98 by 3:00. not much wind to help you out. i'll back in a few minutes. we'll have the seven-day forecast which does have relief and lots of it coming. just hang in there. right now let's go to monika samtani. she has an update on time saver traffic. >

mr. bernanke. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. ness worldwi. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. >>> tough day all day on wall street. they continue to focus, of course, on the may market meltdown. believe it or not, there were a few bright spots that may have gone unnoticed. double digit gains for the month of may. posting the worst monthly decline since september of last year. the of course, the month of may looks a lot like where today does material is under pressure. the question is whether the tide is turned for the market. it's been negative. we've seen a shift out of financials and tech. consumer spending comprises two-thirds of the growth. forget our facebook comeback. now ancient history while the stock's big loss has begun a blame game. morg

mr. bernanke indicated, would not happen, wouldn't occur because we'll have a crisis before that. if we continue on this path. so this is what they found. on 25 years under the current policy, annual deficits would reach $5 trillion a year. or 17% of g.d.p., and would rise steadily thereafter. in other words we'd have in one year a $5 trillion deficit. this year we expect to spend $3.7 trillion total, including defense and social security and medicare. they go ton make this finding: federal debt would reach approximately 200% of g.d.p. that is, the debt would be twice as large as the entire american economy. japan has that high a debt. it's the highest in the world. it's financed because of japanese unusual saving policies, financed painly unternally, but we're not financing our debt that way. in fact, 60%-70% of our debt right now is being financed by the federal reserve, by buying treasuries. by the federal reserve. that's a very dangerous thing because it's in effect printing money. so this is an unsustainable path. they go on to say, annual federal spending would rise to $10 t

mr. bernanke, i'm worried about these figures,

mr. bernanke & company make news today, the dow, s&p and nasdaq are as follows, a fifth of a percent decline. oil and gold down as we keep our eye on the commodities phase. let's get to stories we're following on the special edition of the halftime show. the man of the hour, there he is, fed watch, twister qe 3. will they or won't they. take positions as soon as it comes out. facebook finding a bottom. the company getting advertising love from coca-cola and ford. the stock has found some support. ken joins us with the first call on facebook. calling microsoft, software giant expected to unveil details on its highly anticipated windows phone. we're monitoring the latest there. welcome to the "halftime report." there's lots to trade today. let's get to it. someone taking it off the table, head of risk management going all in cash. he joins us now on the fast line with the reasons why. keith, thanks for joining us. >> hey, scott, thanks for having me. >> taking your chips and going home. why? >> i think into bernanke here heads you lose, tails you lose. qe 3, a continuation of what's happening

mr. bernanke. all right. we'll see you back here. >> yep. absolutely, sue. see you tomorrow, as well. >> that's it for "power lunch." "street signs" begins right now. see you tomorrow. >>> hello and welcome to "street signs." let's get to washington, d.c. and steve liesman with the fed an outlook awaiting ben bernanke. steve? >> thanks very much, brian. the members lowering the outlook for growth and inflation and raising the unemployment outlook for this year and indeed the next three years. six fmoc members reducing the forecast for the average funds rate of 2014 to 1.1% principally because six members see the first rate hike in 2015. up from april and looks like the addition of the two fmoc board members made the board a little bit more dovish here. here's the outlook. see they shave half a point off growth for this year. they shave a .4 off the growth outlook for 2014 and above trend growth for 2014. unemployment rate outlook, 12.4% for the fed and that is a probably aggressive given that we are now still above that. we would have to end up below that fo

mr. bernanke, i'm worried about these figures, mush. >> very funny stuff, conan o'brien and the five romneyf romney is elected president, we'll know a lot more about them, to be sure. that's it for me. thank you very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. remember, the conversation continues on twitter. follow me at wolf blitzer. the news continues next on cnn. >>> hello, everyone. i'm don lemon. former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky could be sentenced in about 90 days. he's under suicide watch in jail. he was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse. dottie sandusky was spotted around noon delivering a package to her husband. in a few minutes, i'll speak to the attorney for witness number four. >>> gusty winds and flames are forcing colorado residents from their homes. fire crews are warning of extreme fire conditions and the potential for the hyde park fire to rapidly grow. the number of acres burned has just jumped to 75,000. >>> in utah, fast-moving flames and falling ash surrounded homes. cnn affiliate ktvx reports families barely made it

mr. bernanke, whether he supports that legislation. >> the markets are watching this very closely as they always do when a fed chairman speaks. do you think he'll be hesitant to make news, given everything going on and so maybe hesitant to answer your questions? >> well, i hope he does. i hope he does. the other issue we have got to deal with, long term is that in my view, this economy does not get stronger if we continue to have the incredible concentration of ownership on wall street that we currently do. most people don't know this, but the six largest financial institutions in america have assess thes, chris, equivalent to two-thirds of the gdp of the united states. of $9 trillion. if you told me teddy roosevelt were alive today, he would be say, we have to break these guys up. we need more competition in the financial marketplace. it's wrong that these six banks are producing half of the credit -- half of the mortgages in america and two-thirds of the credit credit cards -- >> those in america sitting out there, worried about the economy. you watched what happened to the stock market

mr. bernanke's comments on thursday. he has to be much more guarded on that.esn't use it as a policy tool. they're watching ms. yellin's comments, ty, very closely tomorrow. >> very interest ing. dan, 20 seconds. your chart of the day is apple. >> apple, that's right. >> what's the story? >> here's the thing. mid-july apple announces earnings. you want to be in apple before that time. it's down

mr. bernanke and hopefully he'll do everything he can to keep this economy moving and to support a fragilemy. >> i pose the same question to you. as carolyn put it, you got a shaky world economy, a fiscal cliff, anemic economy here at home. is it bernanke's per view? should he ease? >> no, q he-1 and qe-2 didn't work to produce the high. it gave us a sugar high in the stock market. it creates more uncertainty within the market. and again, i think the real problem is that we're facing this fiscal cliff that congress has not got its financial house in order. the president continues to talk about higher taxes on job creators, and now we've seen just this tsunami of red tape on businesses as well as his health care plan. i think there are limits to what monetary policy can do, and we've reached them. >> carolyn maloney, have we reached those limits? let me just pause this, i want to set this up. we've had roughly a trillion dollars in federal government spending, but with the fed, they've created roughly $2.5 trillion of new money. and what we got out of that is really the worst recovery since

mr. bernanke himself, that there's not much he can do. high inflation on the one hand, and high unemployment on the other. the tool it uses to navigate is short-term interest rates. the fed can raise rates making it more expensive to borrow money, slowing the economy and ultimately bring inflation down. the fed can cut interest rates making it easier to borrow money and giving it a boost in economic growth. you may notice there's a very, very important symmetry at the heart of managing the economy. during the time when inflation is suddenly persistently high, the fed can keep raising rates until the fever comes down. that's what paul volker did during the 1970s. rates went unto 70 pnt which triggered a recession. what happens if you have persistently high unemployment? well, you can cut rates. after cutting rates a few times, you eventually end up at 0% and there's nothing left to cut. it just so happens that the zero lower bound should deal with it with the subject of much of ben bernanke's research. bernanke studied the aftermath. they

mr. bernanke, good to see you again.when you appear before this committee last october, you testified in most recessions the house seems that there is usually come and i quote, but it part of the recovery process. you testified many people are underwater and that their last inequity means that they are poor, they are less willing to spend in addressing the housing situation is very, very. in january, the federal reserve issued caring conditions in the united states housing market the report says this and i quote, continued weakness in the housing market poses a significant barrier to more vigorous economic recovery. chairman bernanke, i assume you still believe that addressing the housing crisis is critical to resolving our economic situation. is that right? >> yes. >> economists and experts across the political spectrum believe that one key tool to addressing the housing crisis is targeted principal reductions for underwater mortgages because they hope homeowners save taxpayers money by avoiding the full. mr. chairman,

mr. bernanke could have turned the tablings for a moment, he might have asked the members of congress, well, what are you doing to get the economy moving forward? i think that's a reasonable question. let me suggest to mr. cantor, who thinks we're finished for business this year, that there are many elements of outstanding tbhais can help create -- of outstanding business that can help create jobs in america. let's start with the first one -- the transportation bill. the transportation bill will create 2.8 million jobs in america. what kind of jobs? as the majority leader said, to repair bridges and highways, to build our airports, to make sure america has a safe infrastructure to build our economy on. well, in the senate, we came to an agreement. senator barbara boxer, chairman of the environment and public works committee, as well as senator jim inhofe, the ranking republican member from oklahoma, reached an agreement, brought a bill to the floor, we went through the long process of amendments, and it passed. i think the final roll call was 74-22. it was an overwhelming bipartisan vote th

mr. bernanke about tomorrow. as he goes into the quantitative easing, part of that involves printing money. he will say that it's not printing. but it is creating money that we don't have so that we continue to spend at these heightened level. i hope that if any message comes out of wisconsin, it is that we need to step back and look at this from a fairly rational standpoint. everybody inside washington knows you cannot do this for every. sooner or later that message might make it inside the beltway. maybe a stray in wisconsin was the first up. host: let's hear from democratic caller in chicago. welcome, carl. caller: i get tired of you people talking about we are spending money. this economic crisis, we probably lost more than two years of gop, they said. then they said for least two years we did not create any money in our economy. so we did not have money to pay the bills because we were not making any money. so it's not like we are just going out spending money. if you lose your job and you don't have any mon

mr. bernanke is in an economic and political prison.ket wants the qe, the president wants the qe, the republicans don't. it's a really tough spot to be in. it's supposed to be political. they're not supposed to be subject to those things. unfortunately, is. he can be blamed for this, really. i mean, it started in 2007, 12008. and the blame can be president bush, president obama and squarely on bernanke. >> do you think that we can go further from here? >> in the metals? >> yes, copper, for example. gold, specifically, has much, muchl more volatility than it does in the past. here's the thing about gold. gold has perceived at lower levels than this as a permanent store value. right now, it is an investble asset. it will be an investble asset above a thousand dollars. having said that, the volatility has been more than we've seen in the prior 16 months. >> rob, thank you very much. >> your name is hobbs, i can't expect you to say my name right. >> maybe they should start writing it out phonetically for you. >> they already do. >> let's he

ku not reduce deficit by extending tens of thousands of dollars for tax cut to wealthy. >> bernanke was drawn mre in the debate to talk about retiring income tax cut? bernanke would only look at them as whole and said the expiration of all of them would stager the economy. >> adverse effect on growth in the economy would be significant. >> bernanke said the fed will decide whether it needs additional action to boost the economy. if so, what. he made clear congress has at least as big a role as the fed does. faces critical choices. bret? >> more with the panel. thank you. the house has voted to repeal tax on medical device makers that is part of the president healthcare law. 37 democrats joined republican in approval. the senate said it would not take up the measure. president threatened to veto it. still ahead, what voters in a crucial stretch of florida are saying about the presidential campaign. up next, the attorney general donneling rhetorical bullets over operation fast -- dodging rhetorical bullets over operation fast and furious. all multivitamins give me the basics. they claim to be comp

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, representative mulvaney. >> thank you, dr. bernanke. i want to talk about an esoteric topic that may not be of interest to a lot of folks but it caught my attention. the interest rate derivative market, specifically the market for swaps. if i've got any numbers correctly, the size of this market has grown from $682 billion in 1987 to over $400 trillion today, roughly six size of the world economy. that's notional value but it implies a gross to this market. there was a federal reserve of new york report back in march called an analysis of otc interest rate derivative transactions that essentially said that this market was very difficult to measure, very difficult to see, very difficult to value so that most of the transactions occurred over the counter and not in the broader exchanges. they actually said that the lack of comprehensive transaction data has been a barrier to understanding how the otc derivatives markets operate. as i was reading this, it struck me that a lot of those words could be used to describe what happened with the

bernanke. not exactly mr. sunshine today.of unemployment will remain at 8% through the end of the year. we heard from him about 90 minutes ago. take a listen. >> participants will see slower progress in reducing unemployment than they did in april. committee participants projections for the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of this year have a central ten di si of 8.0 to 8.2% declining to 7.0% to 7.7% in the fourth quarter of 2014. levels that would remain above participants estimates of the longer run rates of unemployment. let's go to erin burnett. he painted a dark dismal picture. here is my question for you. somebody say hang on. if it's really that bad, there are steps you could have taken today, and taken today and you didn't take them, right? >> that's right, brooke. there are still more bullets left in the fed's arsenal as we'd like to say. there are still more things that they can do. but i think one way to look at this is to say, look, he did say growth is coming back very gradually. we parse every word of the