ben bernanke said today the u.s. economy is doing better, but higher gasoline prices could temporarily reduce consumer spending. the chairman of the federal reserve was on capitol hill speaking to congress, updating lawmakers on the state of the economy. in a word, tom, he sees "modest" growth. >> tom: susie, bernanke's comments came shortly after the government reported that the nation's economy grew by 3% in the last three months of last year-- higher than previously thought. also today? the central bank's survey of regional economies-- the beige book-- had some encouraging news. hiring is picking up, the housing market is improving, and manufacturing activity is expanding. >> susie: as for what the fed might do next to boost the economy? bernanke didn't give too many clues. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: sure, growth is about average now and unemployment is falling faster than the federal reserve expected, but federal reserve chairman ben bernanke was not about to take his foot off the gas. he defended his dri

>> bernanke put. he's keeping it in place in order to get growth you have to have the wealth effect. and bernanke is behind that effort. >> i no he what it is. you tell me what you're buying. >> the put remains in place. think you go back to what you and i have been talking about, the end of quarter. what's the right trade on the end of the quarter? it's okay to own the ag names, it's okay to own energy. i think you focus in other places here. you focus in financials, you continue large cap tech, focus there as well and the russell, small caps, great source of opportunity. take a look at a name like coin star, which is partnering with verizon. with red box. getting into streaming right now. i think the small cap space is a source of opportunity where you got to look. >> you mentioned the end of the quarter, the best quarter for stocks. dr. jay, since 1998. welcome back from your vacation, by the way, great to have you back. tanned. >> it's all makeup. >> what are you buying? >> i think the gld. i bet

chairman, and welcome, chairman bernanke. you know, i guess over the last 30 or 40 years, i have criticized the fed on occasion, but the congress deserves some criticism, too. the federal reserve is a creature of the congress, and if we don't know what the fed is doing, we have the authority, and we certainly have the authority to pursue a lot more oversight, which i would like to see. so although the fed is on the receiving end, and i think rightfully so when you look at the record. the fed has been around for 99 years, almost a few years since you took it over. in 98%, 99% of the dollar value is gone from the 1913 dollar, so that's not really a very good record. and i think what we're witnessing today is the end stages of a grand experiment, a philosophic experiment on fiat money. they always end badly, they always return to market-based money which is commodity money, gold and silver. but this experience is something different than we've ever had before, and it started in 1971, where we were actually given an opportunity i

welcome, chairman bernanke. dr. ben bernanke is currently serving his second term as chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. his first term began under president bush in 2006. dr. bernanke was chairman of the council of economic advisers during the bush administration from june 2005 to january 2006. prior, he served as a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system from 2002 to 2005. chairman bernanke, please begin your testimony. >> thank you. chairman johnson, ranking member shelby and other members of the committee, i'm pleased to present the monetary policy report to the congress. i'll begin with a discussion of current economic conditions and the outlook and then turn to monetary policy. the recovery of the u.s. economy continues but the pace of the expansion has been uneven and modest by historical standards. after minimal gains last year, real gdp increased at a 2.25% annual rate in the second half. the limited information available for 2012 is consistent with growt

or did the market misinterpret bernanke? i want to throw that into the mix when we do stock market work. >>> plus, an exclusive live interview with former federal reserve governor and bernanke and kevin warsh, what he has to say about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. free market capitalism always the best path to prosperity. "kudlow report," we'll be right back. i've been riding since i was 17. flat out my whole life. ran into a pretty serious medical issue. i was prescribed one drug one place, another somewhere else. turns out if i had taken both drugs together, i'd have been in real trouble. but unitedhealthcare spotted the danger, and warned my pharmacist in time. we only get one shot, and i want to leave this life exhausted. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the th

it's been a busy week in the spotlight for the federal reserve chairman today ben bernanke you spoke at the opening of a fed conference in washington with other central bankers this rounds out a week where he gave two lectures in his college class the first ever talk by a sitting fed chairman live streams for everyone to see not just the students they got the spot there now you could call it class or you could call it indoctrination or an attempt to rewrite history or a p.r. offensive in the face of criticism regardless it's friday so we have some time we took some time to look at his lesson plan with more scrutiny and yesterday he tackled the issue of the housing bubble and the debate over the role of the fed's loose monetary policy in creating it so here is professor bernie accompanied by his power point slides making his main point and excuse the camera work. the evidence that i see and we've done within the. suggests that monetary policy did not play an important role in raising house prices during the. ok first of all this is false on its face because the housing bubble was not

i'm -- i think ben bernanke has over inflated the amount of currency that he's created. >> bernanke takesost of his public heat on capitol hill. one of the most memorable moments happened just over a month ago with the familiar face. >> mr. bernanke, if you don't mind, would you tell me whether you do your own shopping at the grocery store? this 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.

and reason to a little bit. >> and what people are worried about, why is bernanke doing this? the absolute failure of fiscal policy, of obama, and why he's printing money, even today. >> neil: what does that say that he's the only dove in the room and this is what he's done? >> i think that ben bernanke is not a lunatic, i think he's a pretty smart guy. >> i didn't call him a lunatic. >> we make it sound like he's throwing gasoline on the fire. >> i think he's he worried about the economy going backwards. >> and a lunatic if they're the head of the federal reserve and it's that easy and i didn't say that, but i'm saying that anybody that thinks that the federal reserve could easily manage inflation, they're out of their tree and by the way, one thing that should wake everybody up, what long-term interest rates have done in the last couple of weeks, we've got mortgage rates above now 4%, oh, i know, it's so low, but they can get out of control and quickly. >> if you're alarmed about a 4% margin. >> that's more per day. >> and you know what? i'm alarmed by it a spike and the fed

will break down exactly why you used to be worried about what you just saw an ben bernanke hero or villain it's the question explored in the cover story of the atlantic we'll tell you what we think let's get to today's capital account. what is special day it is not every day you get to see a goldman sachs executive director telling everyone why he's leaving goldman in a new york times editorial by now everyone probably knows who greg smith is let me just tell you what he says is the formula for being a leader at goldman so we can rehash this a execute on the firm's axis which is goldman speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we're trying to get rid of because they're not seen as having a lot of potential profit or be elephants which basically just means to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to goldman or c find yourself sitting in a seat or your job is to trade any illiquid opaque product with a three letter acronym yeah we know those m.d.'s c.d.s. c.d.o. that kind of thing but we just want to say wow how far we have come since the days a

ben bernanke you first glance might seem like kind of a colorless bureaucrat in fact he's a mensch. he's an immensely thoughtful you see in the interview in time magazine he's someone who recognized this. what he was doing and the chairman whether it is greenspan. they can do no good they cause our troubles they cause the inflation they cause the bubbles and therefore the but the correction is always there for yes dr paul and even in this article it points out that bernanke he has always referred to bubbles in quotation marks that just kind of sums it all up like i did doesn't even believe that bubbles really exist except you know well in this case. bernanke is always scared me because he's not a greenspan greenspan you he was king was compromised he was wrong to compromise ideology and he was he was on a power trip but bernanke he actually believes it and he truly is as scribed a madman ok during the cold war we thought we had rational actors going to go through with on the side of the rush of the u.s. and the russians right but in the case of ben bernanke you know he's irrational

of the problem is they keep tweaking the gauges to try to tell them the thing they want to hear bernanke is flying the economic plane of america and when the gauges are showing him what he should be doing making some adjustment to the flaps or doing something correct to actually sustain economic flight he just basically taking black pain and you know spraying it over that gauge and saying i don't see that gauge he goes in front of congress to say go look at. just the word thing and of course he just is there to promote the agenda of the central banking authority and the club talk r.c. and as a result we got economic armageddon in response to this jet blue situation we have this headline jet blue's c.e.o. barger pilot is a consummate professional so course you talk about the pilots a consummate professional he shouldn't talk to ways to push things flying. well of course he's trying to make sure that the passengers continue to fly jet blue and the same thing you see with the financial sector or the mainstream media they keep won't tell you oh it's all fine yes man ben bernanke you running

news exclusive pilot goes birds are watching jim cramer there and pressing the prince button is ben bernanke he of course and he is in charge of our global economy i thought it was a good analogy to compare this to the jet blue pilot when a little bit bizarre on the flight to las vegas yet what happened the first time the topic running down the aisle make it look in first peanuts well max passengers subdue screaming jet blue captain as mid-air rant diverts flight a jet blue flight captain had to be tackled by passengers today after you ran up and down a packed flight screaming about terrorism and al qaeda and a terrifying mid-air outburst he was shouting say your prayers but it is very similar to how the guy in charge of our global financial monetary system is doing the same thing and yet the passengers are not tackling the captain as it were but they're sitting there calmly as if the plane isn't out of control if it is the pilot of the american economy that he's not reading instruments very well that inform him about what the economy is doing the gauge there that says wages is crashing but

what is bernanke doing? keeping them at zero even longer? and now the phoney stress test that's came out. they're in the papers today the they -- the federal reserve asks the banks to run the stress tests. under the stress tests, the sum sgs the interest rates stay at zero and the treasury yield is below 2%. why wouldn't the fed ask the banks to run a stress test on a return to normal interest rates? the reason is because all those bank was fail. ben bernanke has got the whole economy hooked now on cheap credit. it is masquerading the economic growth. if you look at the trade deficit that came out last week, it's exploding. the account deficit is getting bigger. the jobs we're creating are making us poorer, not richer. what we need for economic growth, is savings, investment and production. we're not getting that. all we're doing is spending borrowed money. when you spend borrowed money, you can create some jobs like we created jobs during the housing bubble. but when that bubble bursts, all those jobs disappear. and what you're left with is

how many dollars they bought back. >> let's talk ben bernanke here. because of course his comments today, once again boosting confidence in stocks whether institutional or retail. he continues to reiterate that rates will be very low for a very long time. >> i'm fs nated by the response to that, too, kelly. >> just to be clear, it seems more-likely-than-not basis, by the way, at this point, that more kwaunt tating is on the way. ben bernanke says we risk having unemployment stay permanently high at these levels but now economists are worrying that qe itself might become permanent. and this th is where the comments from former european central bank president come into play. over the weekend there is a gathering of central bankers and economists in d.c. and trichet at the conference, reported how long they have been doing quantitative easing. and he says, look, is there something that points to these policies that once started become permanent? an interesting question. >> that's a long time. >> let me get into metal here, ber that. what was the trade in

ben bernanke. 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's lecture is over, to avail yourself to those and we hope there will be a lively exchange of questions and answers at the end of the lecture. it's now a distinct honor to introduce the chairman of the board of governors of this federal reserve system, dr. ben an bernanke. he servesas chairman of the federal reserves open market committee. before his appointme

these are your headlines for march twenty third two thousand and twelve ben bernanke today is meeting in washington with central bankers for what sounds like a central bank and love fest where they're gauging the impact of their easy money policies this after the head of the federal reserve has made the rounds this week defending these very policies to students as professor piri is arguing that loose monetary policy did not cause the housing bubble the increase in house prices was way too large to be explained by the relatively small change in interest rates. but we have the pleasure of breaking that news to investor jim rogers he helps us set the record straight and the white house announces its nominee for the traditionally washington dominated position of world bank president i believe that nobody is more qualified to carry out this mission then dr jim kim. is dr jim yong kim a physician president of dartmouth college not a banker not an economist nor a diplomat also not larry summers he's born in south korea immigrated to the u.s. when he was five so does that still lightly confus

ben bernanke hasn't really commented on h gas prices. the short run and probably boost inflationary pressures in the short run. not changing any of his longer term or medium-term forecasts upon which he bases policy and he's made such comments in the past with previous gas price hikes, but right now what he's talking about is the current gas price hike and saying it will probably slow growth, raising the question as to whether or not the federal reserve may be thinking growth is slower than otherwise thought because of the recent spike in gas prices. let's go back to the hearing. >> you can choose that amount of time. the larger the number you create -- but again, the debt limit doesn't decide how much we can borrow. you decide how much we can borrow because every year you authorize it. >> how much debt would we need to meet current and future obligations, assuming the status quo indefinitely? >> that i'd be happy to get you in writing but i can't do it in my head. >> how about a round number? >> no idea. but if your question is, if cong

i'm ben bernanke. thanks for sharing those with us? >>> all right, mel burn had this great idea that we should do a hung. >>. >>> up next, the underdiagnosed disease plaguing some of the nation's individuals and how you can help. as a chef we are always committed to our suppliers... you know, those farmers, those foragers, those fishermen... for me, it's really about building this extraordinary community. american express is passionate about the same thing. they're one of those partners that i would really rely on whether it's finding new customers, or, a new location for my next restaurant. when we all come together, my restaurants, my partners, and the community amazing things happen. to me, that's the membership effect. chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technolo

i did just get out of class with fed chairman ben bernanke. a really interesting class where he ends up laying the ground work historically for current fed policy. i do want to play you a piece of the interview i had earlier today with fed chairman ben bernanke when i asked him about the current situation in the economy and rising rates. >> you know, i'm here to talk about history and about the fed's role in the crisis and so on. we're going to continue to analyze, you know, the financial data we get. the committee i's going to lookt everything that's happened. it's an interesting period. we've seen improvement. we've still got a long way to go. we're going to keep looking at it. >> i thought one way i could ask it you might want to answer, will interest rates still be exceptionally low when a junior graduates? >> i don't know. depends on how good their course work is. if they get through in time. >> i thought i could get an answer out of him that way. in the course what he talked about was the gold standard and the stakes by the federal reser

bernanke surprised the markets. he didn't ofrp that the fed is considering another round of easing measures. he's expecting today to reensure investors rates will stay low for a while. he is encouraged by a pickup but is still cautious on the overall economy. >> the recovery of the u.s. chi continues but the pace of expansion has been even and modest by historical standards. after minimal gains in the first half of last year, real gdp increased at 2.25% and enthusiastically rate in the second half. the limited information ava available for 2012 is consistent with growth in coming quarters at a pace close to or somewhat above the pace that was registered during the second half of last year. >> and in addition to ben bernanke's comments, philly fed president says the u.s. economy is improving at such a steady pace. the case for further easing goes away. mr mroser says they could raise rates before 2014 and even some time this year. >> i think if the performance on employment and the economy continue to improve as we'v

bernanke reignite the risk trade. old tech possibles and the nasdaq heads for its best quarter since '09, citi's mark mahanen joins us. now back to melissa. >>> markets moving higher on bernanke's upbeat comments on the u.s. labor market and positive economic data out of germany. should you be buying into the rally or putting money to work during a pull-back? let's bring in david katz. chief investment adviser at matrix advisers. it sounds like you're luke warm on the markets. >> we think the year is going to end higher, but you've had a great quarter on top of a strong fourth quarter so things are going to slow down and there's going to be volatility. our best advice is not to chase the raly. know that you like stocks and into any sort of weakness on any sort of concerns, you want to buy into that. >> the markets are rallying on these bernanke comments and the notion that rates will remain extremely slow for an extended, for even more extended period of time at this point. is that a reason in your view to buy stokts

before he was federal reserve chairman ben bernanke, he was professor bernanke. and today, the head of the world's most powerful central bank returned to the classroom, teaching a small group of students at george washington university about the history of central banking. darren gersh was there and took some notes. >> reporter: i don't know about you, but none of my college classes had a dress code or a professor who brought a bomb- sniffing dog. but then again, few lecturers have lived and shaped the history they are teaching. >> so, it's very important to get in there aggressively as a central banker, provide that short-term liquidity, and avoid the collapse, or at least the serious stress on the system. >> reporter: when you hear professor bernanke describing how the federal reserve handled the great depression, it is easy to imagine chairman bernanke telling himself "i won't let that happen again." and he should know-- he's one of the world's experts on the history of the great depression. >> unfortunately, the fed met its first great challenge in the great

i think that's compelling and at the same time you have a guy like ben bernanke he. still printing money yeah and still running a very loose monetary policy and traditionally that kind of monetary policy has been friendly to hard assets like houses friendly to hard assets like gold buffett in his most recent annual statement annual letter said that exact thing it with respect to houses that you are in an environment where the dollars and lose value and you want things to protect to protect your wealth and he would buy two hundred thousand houses if he could. curiously he has no interest in gold. but he sees the same the same picture in a lot of people to two i like air because he's hedging between crony capitalism and also to some of the plus side of that that you're looking at i also thought it was interesting that you said that this was a reverse bet on the bond market and also a bad against inflation and i really appreciate you being on the show and helping us navigate this crony capitalist world which we can both criticize but also need to figure out how the heck

when we're looking ahead to the fed meeting on tuesday it's all going to be about what bernanke says about qe3 and right now that seems to be a little murky at this point. they may take a wait and see approach. >> you just mentioned such a good recap and how asian central banks, boj and everyone globally. right now it's trying to sort out where monetary easing could come into play and how central banks are right now and i think the questions completely have stabilized themselves, especially how greece has reacted in some of the periphery had in the bond markets, so particularly right now i'm not surprised how well that's happened. but, again, i think bernanke's speech is going to be more stabilizing because the market anticipates through commodity prices that you're going to see further easing in the pipe and, again, i think that's showing up best right now on how the dollar is trading against the euro. >> okay. and when it comes to how bernanke has handled this so far in terms of his comments and the wait and see approach on qe3, i do think the markets are respecting that and that's

no guessing what bernanke has said or hasn't said that is moving them. we have a series of economic figures that came out in europe just yesterday. germany's biggest economy and coming out with an efo index of investor confidence that was better than people expected and that's been helping to lift markets particularly in germany but across the board it's still looking positive despite the fact that we've had some of these indices posting five consecutive days' worth of losses last week, some like the dax and cac 40, an excuse to buy. that's more or less what's happening. >> if you look at the markets in asia certainly getting a pop today, nina. got that positive number from wall street overnight. that was the follow-on through the asian markets today. to their highest level in six weeks. across the board except for the shank shy composite which tends to go its own way, the nikkei up 2.3%, big jump for japan. post tsunami high. the country's largest exporter sony closing up more than %, hong kong's hang seng index rose 1.0% and australia getting a boost o

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 popula

bernanke welcomed the recent decline in the u.s. jobless rate, but he said employment at -- unemployment at 8.3% remains far from a normal level. >> we kant yet be sure the recent pace of improvement in the labor market will be sustained. conditions remain far from normal as shown, for example, by the high level of long-term unemployment and the fact that jobs and work remain well below precrisis peaks. >> the fed chief said having many people out of work for extended periods could lead to structural problems for the whole economy. he said they will have more difficulty finding jobs the longer they are unemployed. >>> now following his speech, the dow jones industrial average ended higher regaining almost all of the losses made last week. so let's see how stocks here in tokyo are kicking off. we're going to go to ra mean mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. so wall street finishing on a high note after the fed chief's comments. what more can you tell us? >> very good morning, ai. judging by whatever way you take bernanke's words t

as you heard me say federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he began his college lecture series today he spoke to undergraduate students at george washington university right here in d.c. becoming the first fed chairman ever to help teach a college course now eighty students apply wrote as they really wanted to be a part of this to become indoctrinated and why the federal reserve is important i would argue let's highlight a few of his powerpoint lessons since we listened and watched his lecture attentively so here's where he's talking about the fed being the lender of last resort he says the qualities there are that they lend freely against good assets at o'connel too great to discourage excessive use honey ok so that's what he told those students that's funny though because we thought the federal reserve has done and you think but lend against good collateral in recent years you know traditionally the fed has accepted only the highest quality collateral in return for a loan the prime example of u.s. treasuries during the two thousand and eight crisis however the fed post-crisis was will

ben bernanke is on the front. i was talking to peter schiff and other people out of the room who were basically ones who see bernanke as a villain as opposed to a hero. they see bernanke as a villain for keeping interest rates so low that either inflation or other bubbles are being created. and so if you were fed chairman today, would you have inflation rate -- the fed rate where bernanke does? >> i'm not there so i don't have to make that great judgment. and i have a regular practice of refraining. >> we just wanted to see if you had given up that practice. >> when i saw that bernanke is a hero, bernanke is a villain, it's out there in public, it reminded me even today i occasionally in the streets, somebody comes up to me and says, you're the s.o.b. that presented my poor mother and father from buying a house in the early 1980s because interest rates were 15%. then i go on a block or two and somebody else says, oh, you're paul volcker. thank you. my father bought government securities at 15% which put me through