what is ben bernanke's legacy?we would like to hear from you. what has he accomplished or not accomplished? this is "bloomberg surveillance." i am tom keene. scarlet fu and alix steel are with me. jim rogers is with me. tope have fed-less headlines. the jobless rate is dropping to 7.4% in october. that is the lowest since april 2009. the fall and unemployment has led to speculation that the bank of england could raise interest rates as early as next year. there were two winners in last night's $636 million mega millions jackpot. one ticket was sold in california and the other was sold in atlanta. become harder to win as the pool increases. to russia with burgers. shake shack is opening its first restaurant in the country and moscow. they will go for more than seven dollars. that is 50% more than in new york prices. russia 30's opened in years ago and a lot of people stood in line for their grand opening. >> i enjoy and they're fine with zine a few nights ago -- fine cuisine a few nights ago. my people brought it to

and ben bernanke. former partner of private equity firm bain capital and also the author of "unintended consequences. oh -- consequences." years andthrough the you also lived through the bernanke years, culminating in your book. in your view, which fed chairmen serve you best? [laughter] >> i suppose alan greenspan. even.t things steady and if you look at the class of 1982, it has been an extremely successful class because over this time, the economy has grown by leaps and bounds relative to other times. are talking about what ben bernanke's legacy might be but i feel like we do not know because we do not know where it ends and the flooding of the markets and all this money could and poorly. money really led to the asset inflation and lead to a crash that was very punishing for a lot of people. do you think we can take stock in bernanke today e >> i disagree with you on greenspan. i do not think the fed has a big impact on asset bubbles. small but not large. i think ben bernanke will be recognized as sa

liz: massuod told us he is giving ben bernanke 10 out of 10 from saving the global economy from a second: greg on facebook told us that he is giving bernanke an f for failure. the impact of his actions will be seen during yellen's term. liz: we'll see. time will play out, won't it. time for the number three three things to watch tomorrow. economists are expecting a reading for the 10 for the regional index up from last month's reading of 6.5. david: number two will be november existing home sales set to be released at 10:00 a.m. as well. economists are expecting sales to drop 1.5%. liz: the number one thing to watch tomorrow, initial jobless claims. economist are expecting claims to drop by 34,000 to 334,000. you could argue the market -- david: i think so. these are one of those days you want to go, whew, what a day. liz: "money" with melissa francis is next. melissa: a new hit on health care. your personal habits could cost you a lot of money. new rules under obamacare could mean financial penalties on your life-style. we've got everything you need to know, because even when they say i

ben bernanke and the post-crisis ben bernanke. at those individuals differently. >> why? >> i could tell you why. let's give peter a chance. >> this was a guy who got the baton from alan greenspan in 2005 and 2006 without any storm clouds. everyone thought this was smooth and he would be able to coast along on a goldilocks economy that was happening. it did not work out. students of the great depression, the expert on the great depression found himself confronted with much the same thing. he had to invent new rules and new tools for the federal reserve. that has been controversial. those decisions -- we do not know how the full legacy will be measured. we have not seen the wind down of the risk factors that everyone knows are out there. looking back, critics in washington as well as supporters who say they are thankful ben bernanke was in the job if for no other reason that he provided a cool hand. in terms of how he led the fed and made decisions, controversial as they may be, people in washington are thankful he was there. serve

that's outgoing federal reserve chairman ben bernanke. he's talking about unemployment, inflation, and monitory policy. he mentioned today that he set transparency as an important priority for the time that he served as fed chair. when he talks like that is the public meant to follow it or really is he talking in technical terms to an audience of journalists and others who understand the technical talk? >> i think he's doing the best to straddle both worlds. his first attempt to be colloquial than his "60 minutes" interview that he did. he has done a great job, especially when you consider where the fed is coming from. his predecessor alan greenspan led in policy by discretion. we're doing this because we think its best and we're not going to tell you the reasoning behind it, bernanke has gone out of his way to use explanations to the public. he uses terminology that may not be your average person's vernacular, but he has increased the amount of transparency. >> and in this case what does that mean? >> very low interest rates for a very l

policy is expected to be pretty much the same under janet yellen as it was under fed chairman ben bernanke. for "nightly business report" i'm steve liesman. >>> the markets had been calm going into the fed statement indicating that many in the trading community expected mr. bernanke to find a way to taper the bond purchases this month or early next year, but they are also expecting him to calm fears the fed will raise interest rates any time soon. he delivered on both counts. after a brief drop, stocks rallied with the dow jones closing at the highest for the day up almost 300 points, it was a historic closing high for the dow industrials and a 13-year high for the nasdaq. yields on the ten-year treasury bond initially vacillated wildly, rising then dropping but ending the day not far from where it was prior to the fed announcement. at the end, it was a very chain reaction in the bond market. for volatility, the fear index, a measure how much protection traders are seeking against market declines went down, and it went down dramatically, about 15%. that is a very large drop indicating bern

watching ben bernanke full labor force participation rate.lem in back in september when you didn't announce taper. why is it a problem low. still at 1978 levels. are we going to hear more fed officials trying to anchor expectations about interest rates? rate spikes, rate rises are kryptonite to the market. ashley: right. -@>> you will see more fed officials out en masse to anchor inflation expectations. more to your point, before the break, ashley, where will the banks park reserves. that is when you talk about inflation, right? that is when banks start lending again and true inflation could possibly pick up steam. ashley: lou, same question to you. you're sitting there. mr. bernanke says, mr. dobbs, you've got the next question, what do you say? >> i don't know that i would form it as a question but rather say, mr. bernanke, well-done, because the, they have managed the, fed in one taper, if you will, to take two elements out of the market. one is they have taken ideology out of the market. you won't hear much discussion now from the hard ri

that's outgoing federal reserve chairman ben bernanke.e's talking about unemployment, inflation, and highly accommodative monitory policy. and even today he mentioned that he set transparency as an important priority for a the time that he served as fed chair. when he talks like that is the public meant to follow or is he talking in-- >> during the press conference it's difficult for him not to get technical because we ask him somewhat technical questions, but i think he has done a great job. his predecessor alan greenspan believed in policy by discretion, and it was sort of we're doing this because we think its best. we're not going to tell you the reasoning behind it, and ba bernanke has gone out of his way to discuss the policy. he has not use the average person's vernacular, i think he does his best to describe why the fed is doing what it's doi doing. >> in this case what does this mean? >> very low interest rates for a very long time. the fed is going to remain supportive of the economy regardless of this small retreat from the won'

>> so, ben bernanke laid out three data conditions. you got to get employment gains, gdp growth picking up and disinflation ending. the problem is, inflation has fallen even more since over the last couple months. they're well below their goal and that's why we think they'll put off the taper until january or march? >> what about you, mike. >> we're looking for january. i think it's a close call. i would not be surprised if they were to taper in an hour from now. as vince pointed out inflation isn't going in the right direction but it's not too far off where they were projecting it in june. >> vince? >> after september 18th, you never put a zero probability on anything. they may very well surprise us in an hour. there's another factor at work, though. it's a different share. >> exactly. >> a person sitting in the chair than anticipated. janet yellen didn't get confirmed in time. it would be a messy sendoff the person explaining what the federal reserve will do over the next couple of years is the person who will probably resign within

>>some months ago when ben bernanke talked about it it rattled the markets. do you think some of the fear has been built in already? >>i think that's why we saw the s&p pullback about 1 ½% last week. i think caused that momentum for traders to take some of the money and pull some things off and start looking toward next year. >>tell me about some of the sectors out there that you might see impacted by any announcement that comes this week. >>we should see the gold market selloff hard. i think that will press that 1200 level. that's been a key level of support so we're probably gonna see another leg down on that. we'll also see the oil markets sell off. most likely 2 -3 dollars on that type of news. >>both of those commodities have already been dropping. >>absolutely. >>how about equities in general? >>we're probably gonna see the s&p 500 continue to melt down. 1750 is a key level of support and i think that a lot of liquidation is gonna occur as a result. >>you think people should be ready for the turnaround right? >>back to the downside, yeah that's complete

. >> i, ben s. bernanketer: it began in 2006 when bernanke became the 14th federal reserve chairman, taking the reins from the man once called the maestro, alan greenspan. at first it was smooth sailing. the u.s. economy was expanding, storm clouds seemed far away. but all that changed in 2007. >> the economic outlook has been importantly affected by recent developments in financial markets which have come under significant pressure over the past few months. >> reporter: the slump in housing gathered speed, foreclosures surged. publicly, bernanke remained upbeat. >> our forecast is for moderate put positive growth going forward for the next few quarters. >> reporter: in fact, the great recession was just beginning. bear stearns collapsed in 2008 and was gobbled up by jpmorgan chase. lehman brothers collapsed, stocks tanked, and credit markets seized up. >> this plan is an emergency plan to put out a fire. >> reporter: bernanke stepped on the gas and revved up the engines. >> mr. bernanke was aggressive at a

we saw ben bernanke appeared to many people changing the goalposts.t was 6.5% unemployment which would lead to raising rates. now he says the, chairman says until far beyond that, i think phrase he used when they might does that concern you the goalposts seem to be changing here? >> david, let me differentiate between two. one is asset purchases, large-scale asset purchases, qe3 in the parlance of the media. then there is how we anchor the shortened of the-year-old curve. that is the reference to 6.5%. that was not just ben bernanne. it was a statement by the committee. it is in the issued statement. david: i understand. >> we'll go working on, getting back hopefully to normalization, working on the overnight rate which is the fed funds rate or its equivalent when we do these reverse repo operations as they're called. we'll just have to wait and see how the economy develops. i think it was just shifting the ball and going back, really essentially to what we originally did which is dealing with the short term end of the yield curve. that is the beginni

ben bernanke's final press conference as chairman begins half an hour later. should they make an announcement today? >> well, the data was good enough in december to go and they didn't. that time i think they got a call from the white house given all the budget problems. the budget problem is solved, employment is looking better, but it's just that inflation is low. the fed does have to worry about inflation. the odds of going today or in january have increased substantially. >> is there any concern about them going today with lighter volumes? would that cause more of an issue for them? would that be a reason not to do it? >> i'm not sure if it would be the only factor. low readings there. in terms of the debt ceiling, there has been no deal yet. february 7 is still on the cards. that altogether could see them hesitate at least and wait out until next year. >> it just seems -- you know, it just seems another sort of three months of this seems like purgatory to me. >> well, it's the purgatory the fed put us in when they didn't move in october. it was hard to ra

ben bernanke announcing that they will reduce the bond program by $10 million in january.ing that the paper will continue further measured steps at future meetings if the economy stays on course. and here is the outgoing fed chairman explaining why the decision was made to begin reining in what has been an explosive expansion of the fed's balance sheet and the greatest capital injection into our financial system in history. >> policy actions today reflect the assessment that the economy is continuing to make progress. and that it also has farther to travel before conditions can be judged as normal. notably, despite headwinds, the economy has been expanding at a moderate pace and we expect that growth will pick up somewhat in coming quarters, helped by highly accommodated monetary policy is and waning fiscal drag. lou: the dow jones, 14 times in the our leading up to the announcement, panicked by an intimation that the fed would cut back the bond purchases. implementing this so-called paper. this includes investor anxiety over the announcement sent the market indexes lower.

ben bernanke, that was a stimulus. but that cannot be economic policy for this country and economic policy by just flooding money into our system. you have to have confidence. you can give me all kinds of money, but if i don't think i can replace it and i don't have aren'tnd these tariffs coming into this country and we don't get jobs because corporations can do it cheaper are note else and we charging them to have access to our economy, we are not ever going to recover from this mess. we need to have our representatives put these things on the floor. these bad trade agreements are killing us. we are not going to survive otherwise. thank you folks. , the caller reddy was talking about putting bills on the floor to change the system. another is a bill pushing to audit the fed. can you talk a little bit about that bill and who is behind that effort. it is directed by a number of lawmakers. a substantial share in the house of representatives. in the senate, you are seeing a fairmont of leadership from senator rand paul, w

ben bernanke did what did he and still satisfy bond and stock markets. he made everyone feel good about the economy. >> it did two things. they did decide to taper. they're going to slow down their bond buying, but they're still going to be buying $75 billion a month. there is still going to be upwards of half a trillion dollars worth of these bonds. they haven't stopped. they certainly have reversed course. they're just slowing down a bit. but the other shoe that they dropped was one that is really the source of the big boom today in the stock market, and that is they're announcing they're not going to really begin to discuss raising interest rates until the unemployment rate falls a good bit further. >> which they don't see it happening until 2015. explain to my viewers that the rate is not going to increase until unemployment go lower, so why would i see higher mortgage rates. >> because the fed mostly and historically in the rates that they're talking about today are the short-term interest rates. the rates that you and i are borrowing at for mortgag

did ben bernanke did forward guidance right this time? markets seem to be dancing duties to right now. >> dancing to his christmas tune, indeed, anna. he did seem to successfully decoupled this idea of tapering and tightening. the taper has begun, but he has convinced investors that will not lead to automatic tightening. is key indicator here -- it almost more inflation based than the unemployment rate, because they will keep interest rates thee to zero well past unemployment rate hits that 6.5% threshold. let's have a listen. >> we are certainly not giving up. we intend to maintain a highly, they've policy. nothing that we did today was intended to reduce accommodation. we will still be buying assets ate, andh rea increasing our balance sheet in holding onto assets. we strengthened our guidance today to make clear that we expect to keep rates low well beyond the point that unemployment hits 6.5%. >> we have ben bernanke's word for it. janet yellen agrees to ritchie supports it. what we have is $5 billion less bonds last month. on bondsse

ben bernanke began tapering this week. is he making the right move? >> yes, yes, i'm worried about a bubble forming if we don't begin tapering, so -- >> is he doing it at the right speed? >> well, we'll see. the numbers just came out, as you saw, today indicating that our gdp growth in the third quarter was higher than expected. a lot of it was inventory, so we're not sure how much to trust that, but i do think that we have to begin this tapering. we're unprecedented in terms of the fed balance sheet, and also having the overnight rate be at zero. basically, there's no flexibility for the fed to be able to respond to the possibility of going into another recession, so i think it's appropriate. >> senator portman, let me close by asking you a political and personal question. earlier this year, you reported that your son was gay and that you had changed your position and you now support gay marriage. nine months later, what's been the political fallout? and really more importantly, what effect has it had on your family? >> family's doing great, first of

ben bernanke says the u.s. economy is almost ready to stand on its own two feet without monthly contributions from the fed. that i had that made invest organs heaps for a day but ben berneke t took you him months to admit that the economy was tanking. he stood side-by-side with then president george w. bush, henry paulsen, as they continued to try to convince americans that everything was fine when it clearly wasn't. that administration did americans a huge disservice. bernanke gave it credibility. he came it out and came out from under their shadow. his fed led the charge coordinating in the darkest days of the financial crisis, ensuring the global flow of money and credit. while congress spent much of the last few years actively sometimeying the economy, the if he had has replaced it as the adult in the room. ben bernanke was late to the game. he stepped up. for that, he deserves the nation's gratitude. >> that's our show for today. i am ali velshi. thanks for joining us. >> hello, i'm richard gizbert and you'

we are getting ben bernanke 2.0. rter, female version of an bernanke. >> come on. >> that is actually a very important point. if you look back at greenspan, he was a hero at the time but now a lot of people blame him for the asset bubble of 2008. do you think we could face a similar situation? >> i think so. the fed has proven that it is a bubble machine. i believe there is risk. not one that is cataclysmic right now, because there is not nearly as much leverage, but is this bubble territory? i think so. >> people have been calling for this for years. for two years now people have said that we will get runaway inflation and a bubble and it has not happened. all right, hold on one second, we have some breaking news we want to get to on the nsa, the president commissioned a report it hashave it right now, been made public, reviewing u.s. surveillance programs in their youth and the recommendations are theoretically to introduce major changes in terms of how the u.s. conducts intelligence. phil mattingly is going to all

something happened with ben bernanke's camera. if we get it reestablished we will immediately get it back to you but we have enough to talk about right here. i am liz claman, welcome to come down to the closing bell and we have the camera back. >> uncertainties out there, fiscal, regulatory and so on that no doubt affects some of these calculations. we hear that from the fomc participants around a table as they report from their local districts. there are a lot of factors. usually you think the way at deficit or long term-would affect investment would be through crowding out, raising interest rates but high interest rates, we may have many problems but high interest rates are not the problem. particularly for larger firms there's plenty of credit available at no interest rates and we intend to try to provide that to help the economy grow and stimulate investment spending but it is going to take faster overall growth to get firms to expand capacity and think if consumer spending increases as we think it will and if exports increase

you know i think as many people have noted he was ben bernanke his advisor at mit so i think to me it's just it's it's what i a little bit worry about is is just more of the same you know i think it in our in our film we highlight officials like paul volcker and some of the regional bank presidents at the fed who have a slightly different perspective i think with stanley fischer i think you know he's clearly a very smart guy and an esteemed you know figure in this world the question is will his ideas be any different from what we've been seeing for the last five ten fifteen years out of the fed and i think i think the answer unfortunately is is notably more of the same now in your film you had a lot of access to current and past fed officials what they have to say about quantitative easing and i mean specifically the effects that will have on the economy if and when the fed starts to wind it down yeah i mean i think. a good quantitative easing similar to the vocal rule is the kind of thing i think a lot of people have been judging in the short term and i think we really won't know for y

been portraying which i think has been support for the big banks support for the stock market ben bernanke has been very explicit about wanting stock prices to go up and recently with with their purchase of mortgage backed securities at five hundred billion dollars a year explicit support for the housing market and so there's a number of people at the fed who think this is a bad precedent this is a bad road they're going down and they would like the fed to get off that road and to unwind q e to stop talking about the stock market to stop talking about the housing market to stop buying mortgages and to go back to what a traditional treated the central bank more traditionally does because you could argue that their policies today are designed for you know massive crisis and right now we're not in a massive crisis so really it represents subsidies to certain groups in the economy and historically you know when governments or central banks do that kind of thing it doesn't work out and b can sort of backfire on them can create a lot of public backlash when people see the fed supporting one grou

because ben bernanke knows what he's doing. because in this case, the one rare case we are a part of the government than the people who trade stocks and bonds for a living. we might have to endure endless attacks from ben bernanke and the president and the policies that hurt growth. we can digest the endless slagging for creating balloons and the disciplines that so many idea logs, dogmatically think are right. however, in the end, though, and today is the end, the last meeting of the ben bernanke era, he got it right. it was the critics who got it wrong. with this rally in the face of common sense decision to cut back the economy and we have the reason not to own stocks that one day the fed will begin to slow down as bond buying and it was fabulous, plus the worry is now behind us. we saw a glimpse of the future and they tried to prop up the stock market, and they know the economy is growing enough that the fed doesn't have to keep pumping in steroids and rates are still going to stay low perhaps to 2015 and beyond. bernanke c

all as ben bernanke will to his final press conference. federal open market committee decision is an important decision and an historic decision. 2006-13, ben bernanke chooses with his fed to taper. as hes his first speech returned from the woodrow wilson center in february, 2006. what a safe quotation, michael mckee, from a safe time. >> at that time, inflation was not even on the radar screen. disinflation and re-inflation was nowhere. they are concerned about , but not enough to sway him or the committee in the vote. they say, especially if project inflation is effective to run below the committees two percent longer-term goal. they did add an inflation component. not as a lower bound on the inflation when they would hike, but they did note that they could change policy if they have this is what -- this deflation. >> in february, 2006, would you and your colleagues suggest that the fed had to provide almost closure to a burning kiera, and the way to do that was to begin? , and the bernanke era way to do was to begin? >> i think they sai

they got that from ben bernanke yesterday. arco when you look at this cautious view that was correct from bank of america, merrill lynch, have you brought up your view recently? is there more optimism at your shop? -- wehave not been low have not been below consensus for the last couple of years. for next year we are thinking with the smaller fiscal drag, with some signs of some of the tailwinds with the economy picking up, including housing, we are a bit more optimistic. we expect 2.6% next year in growth versus 1.7% this year. >> we know how much quantitative easing has helped the markets. how about america? how about regular people out there? what has he done for them? >> you have to remember if we had not had quantitative easing, there would have been more evident effect on the labor market. forwardquestion going is, will we start to see investment pick up, private investment on the part of firms? that will be the key driving forward. >> we have e call hansen, 35,000 feet, bank of america. are you ok? what is the irish phr

a few minutes left to talk about ben bernanke and his legacy. jimmy is from athens, georgia. independent line. caller: good morning. listenersremind your that this tradition of big bank- hobia goes back to andrew jackson. they have helped our economy grow. this is the 100th anniversary of the fed. i want to thank mr. bernanke for giving us the lowest inflation rates in u.s. history as well as preventing great depression

ben bernanke has entered his last lap.said more but gradual. $10 million in cutbacks in bond buying. tell us what it means. >> he was like a magician at this. you make the point disappear. you pull everybody and say look at this hand. [laughter] that is what he did. with this hand, he tapered. with the other, let's keep interest rates low. do not pay attention to that. pay attention to this low interest rate. also taper light. the markets were unlike the middle of last year even suggesting -- in the middle when he suggested that record to taper, the markets went upward. >> get me the market psychology. they loved it. they did not expect it. >> he said there will still be easy money. the marks have been adjusted. the markets have adjusted. long-term yields are up 1.6%. most of all, the economy is working with health. the economy is working with him. back in may, people said the economy is not that strong. now, it is strong. today, we got numbers. they revised up the third quarter. of growth to 4.1%. the highest since the fo

alan greenspan, ben bernanke. rate those two. who's the better banker? hink bernanke because of the originality, as you said. i would also go so far as to say paul volcker is probably one of the best -- one of the last long-term thinkers in washington. i also would -- i believe greenspan was probably one of the shortest-term thinkers in washington, as we found, you know, after he swept all that dust under the rug throughout most of his tenure. so i would agree with volcker, but i also think that, you know, faced with the issues that bernanke had coming into that job, i think he did an admirable job at negotiating. >> bob mcteer, history is going to judge bernanke. we've never seen anything like what he's done and it may backfire. i have to give greenspan, greenspan understood the high-tech technology productivity boom. now i'm out of time, as always. i'm larry kudlow. we'll be back tomorrow night. thank you, gentlemen. mt. rushmore and the fed. can sey ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only na

this round goes to ben bernanke. he's going to finish on a high note. he's threaded the needle on calling $10 billion taper instead of -- stocks love it. there will be very doubt in my mind that equity should be able to run up for the rest of the year. what equity trader, what portfolio manager is going to challenge the notion of stocks going higher? what vested interest do they not have to put this money in their pockets? i think the real adjustments are yet to happen. i think dr. doom has it right when he said qe forever. you might taper it off for a bit but for the most part it's extremely large. >> lease talk to steve liesman who stepped out from the news conference. you asked the chairman about holding record low rates well beyond the 6.5% employment rate possibility. i mean, were you expecting that? are they just leaving their options open at this point? >> reporter: well, what i expected -- i didn't think they needed or were going to use that particular tool right off the bat. my expectation, bill, is that they would taper, see how the market rea

most direct and obvious ways. >> if confirmed, janet yellen, president obama's pick to replace ben bernanke, do you expect her to stay the course? >> i do. i think janet yellen is cust out of the same intellectual cloth as chairman bernanke. they've been working together closely for years now and i think are on the same page. i don't expect to see any meaningful change when she takes the reigns in a few weeks. >> this was ben bernankes last hurrah today, he's presided over the fed during an extraordinarily difficult time. how do you think history will judge him no. >> very, very well. i think we're lucky as a nation that was at the head of the federal reserve when he became chair, because we went through a very dark period and it required somebody who had an exceptional understanding of american history, what we went through during the depression and most importantly how the federal reserve should navigate through something like that. there was no one better than he to lead the federal reserve at such a key critical time in our history. i think he will be judged very, very well by history.

. >> reporter: ben bernanke announced the fed will begin to taper off its economic stimulus by reducing its bond buying program by $10 billion. it won't end it entirely, which was what some analysts feared. and the fed also decided not to touch interest rates. its key short-term rate will stay near zero until unemployment drops more. >> it now is expecting the unemployment range to fall from 6.3 to 6.6% in 2014 down from 7% we saw in november which was already a five-year low. >> reporter: ben bernanke made it clear the economy is improving slowly. so any change in stimulus should be equally deliberate. and if the pace continues, the fed's plan for changes will remain the same. >> my expectation is for similar moderate steps going forward throughout most of 2014. >> ben bernanke is wrapping up his termed as chairman. tony aiellojanet yellen will take over next year and will continue the same program. >>> thieves ripped out an atm in front of a san francisco store. that was just the beginning of an overnight crime caper. anne makovec on how the thieves led cops on a wrong way chase acros

ben bernanke did a good job at that point. but since then i just think there's not evidence. and i think the market is going to do better basically when the fed gets off of these extraordinary unprecedented policies. david's right, there's nothing like this been done before in federal reserve history. and when these kinds of actions have to the been taken, when they've been avoid, we've had a much better recovery. this is the worst recovery. >> woodruff: adam pos en. >> it is disingenuous of john. because the idea that the economy is going to get better proves the qe stopped working is backwards. the reason they are easing up on qe is because the economy is improving. playing that game doesn't make any sense. more importantly, it's not reasonable to focus-- focus on the-- rather than the goals. what matters is the state of the economy, not what tools they use. >> woodruff: john taylor you want to come become and then i will go to david wessel. >> there is absolutely nothing disingenuous. look at the data, look at american history. you can see what works and what doesn't. this

janet yellen faces greater challenges than ben bernanke did.nke had to make decisions moments in time, hours in time at height of the financial crisis to save us ourselves. janet yellen will have to let hope manage the exit from the monetary policies that would be equally treacherous as getting into them. liz: people love to hear people like you give grades. can you grade ben bernanke on the decision? >> you know what, he got to leave on a high note. this is the first time he communicated clearly and the market heard. he hit it out of the park. i give him an a on this one. what a swan song for ben. i know it has been hard for him. i know there is a lot of critics and it has not been perfect but he hit it out of the park. he gets to go home for the holidays and be happy and miserable like rest of us. liz: hearing a minus from you. diane swonk, good to see you. >> thank you. liz: diane swonk from misery financial. david. david: we have earnings from china. jo ling kent has details. >> good news from china. eps and revenue, beat slightly 59 cents

we heard cautious optimism from ben bernanke as he explains the situation. >> today's policy actions reflect the assessment the economy is continuing to make progress but that the economy has much further to travel. the job market continues to improve with unemployment having climbed further. the recovery is far from complete with unemployment still elevated and long-term unemployment still a major concern. >> ben bernanke says the fact he will soon be replaced by his deputy did not affect the decision. the reaction was quick and strong on stock arctic. --l street rallied, the tao dow jumping one percent. the s&p also up about a percentage point. the fed welcomes this response is a tries to scale back massive support of the u.s. economy. let's turn to brussels, where european finance ministers say they have made a cruise in the long-standing efforts to deal with eggs. -- banks. beingnking union negotiated would likely be the eu's biggest project since the introduction of the euro. >> when banks across europe found themselves on the brink of collapse in 2009, governments across the co

. >> she seems to be more as a mystic ben bernanke. bernanke gave her plenty of flexibility because it is all data dependent. listen to how he put it. its assessment of current conditions in the , our committee now anticipates it will likely be appropriate to maintain the current federal funds rate target well past the time that the unemployment rate falls below 6.5% especially if projected inflation continues to run below its 2% goal. tellquestion for you, if i you that i'm going to keep my christmas tree up at least as long as there is snow on the ground or well past snow on the ground, which way is my christmas tree going to stay up longer? there is your answer. >> as long as it is of string. don't ask ryan chilcote about christmas trees. he sees theow, opportunities. he is the senior of global asset allocation strategist at ubs. are you happy? we have got this mind block out of the way. good move? >> very good move. markets hardly had a ripple. the s&p rallied slightly. volatility fell from 16 to 14 on the vix. generally, the emergi