bernanke on the hill defensed qe.aid, he urged no sequestration and said that they should really push that into the future, and he responded to senator corker who made comments about whether or not the fed was overly helping banks saying quote, none of what you said is true and saying to him we're not engaged in a currency war and rejected senator warren's recommendation on a attacks on banks that are deemed too big to field and envisioned a fed monetary policy where the fed doesn't sell any assets at all and lets the balance sheet wind down. >> stay with us right now and we'll bring in rick santelli, right, scott? >> obviously the market liked what it heard today. i mean, you can debate as to how much bernanke has to do with the rally today, but certainly if there were those who worried that the fed was going to leave sooner than we wanted, he definitely was more in bulla camp, in the dove camp of saying we're not going anywhere and there's substantial improvement in the labor market and we all have to believe that t

ben bernanke kicking off his two-day testimony. if he shows any inclinations or if there's any perception on the street that he will scale back on monetary support, we could potentially see investors continue this risk offer approach. that could potentially go further. >> ron kruszewski, i don't know where you're coming from on this, my friend. i'm going to say bernanke goes up there to defend his ultraeasy money policy. he's going to put an end to this speculation about an earlier tightening. that's done. not only that, he's going to say since we're cutting, oh, heaven forbid, $45 billion from the federal budget, heaven forbid, it's not even a cut, it's just a slower growth rate, that he, bernanke, is going to have to stay loose. do you expect bernanke to say i'm about to tighten policy? >> i don't expect him to do that. look, bernanke has been worried about deflation since the beginning of this crisis. and he's been doing a good job at taking deflation risks basically off the table. larry, all we're adding is a couple of stories

chairman and chairman bernanke.ged near zero interest rate policy could result in excessive risk taking and threaten the financial stability of the united states. i'm interested in what specific metrics you use to evaluate whether these risks are increasing. >> well, first, senator, we have greatly expanded our resources that we use in the monitoring process. we have created a new office for financial stability. we're working very intensively with financial stability oversight council. the amount of effort we have put into this is greatly increased. our internal monitors in turn report regularly to the board and they report to the federal open market committee. so our discussions of monetary policy include extensive discussions of financial stability issues. the kind of metrics that are used include things like leverage, our people who are investing taking on too much leverage, our asset valuations out of line, according to standard metrics, is interest rate risk or other kinds of risk, too concentrated. as you know

and bernanke said, don't say that. but, again, emphasizing the notion that bernanke really wants sequestration to be watered down or diluted a lot, relative to what would happen automatically on march 1st. i think the story today, and i'm interested in obviously always what the traders have to say about this, is this, bernanke is neutral today. very much repeating what said yesterday. so his dovish comments really stand. that puts us on a path of qe being back in -- on track here from where we thought it was maybe a couple of days ago when the minutes came out. and that adds to the better economic data we had today, plus, we're not really hearing the republican house which was where it might happen lay a whole lot of political pressure on bernanke that might end up perhaps having an effect on the policy. the fed would say the politics doesn't matter. we all know it does to least some extent. we're not hearing the heat, scott, from the republicans when it comes to the qe policy right now. >> steve, we can go to the trad

and what bernanke said yesterday.equestration will be a headwind for the economy, consumers faced the headwinds with the gas prices at this point. that is first and foremost in terms of the market's minds and how you treat stocks. at this point, jim, with the fed chairman saying we stand by qe, we're here to stay, at least for now, does italy, does what's happening there come more center stage at this point? >> i used to tray started trading treasuries they were 13% for the 30, 7% was the -- when rubin was treasury secretary. so i don't want to go for the scare tactic. i don't want the euro going down, because when the euro goes down, the dollar goes up, oil goes down, and people say there's a recession. i tend to focus on what home depot says. frank blake, that was some quarter, and he's going over the different divisions that are doing well. i'll go to target and i'm like, wow, they're headwinds there. >> shares of target falling in the premarket. some confusion about the results. it all comes down to canada, and wh

watch what happens when bernanke pulls back. we know we'll see some head winds from sequestration, and we've got head winds from higher taxes. so, yeah, with all of the effort that the fed has made and with still close to a trillion dollars in deficit spending, we still only have 2% g.d.p. growth. >> tom: does this impact your investment strategy, your timeline knowing that the federal reserve is going to coine continued buying with both hands? >> not so much the timeline because we really try to buy things and hold them for a long time. it is really tough to judge the fundamentals because you don't know with all of this cash that is being created if you have organic cash or cash on hand to kind of fuel things. it looked like the market was going to pull back here over the past couple of days. it looked like it might have been overrolling this morning, but then ben bernanke came out and saiden i've got my foot to the floor, and boom, we went back up. >> tom: "arrogance creates incentives that drives the stakes higher, lure us to

yes, i said jete, and ben bernanke.t story you have been looking for. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. the lexus ct hybrid. capella university understands nurses are dealing with a than wider range of issues. and there are ever-changing regulations. when you see these challenges, do you want to back away or take charge? with a degree in the field of healthcare or nursing from capella university, you'll have the knowledge to advance your career while making a difference in the lives of patients. let's get started at capella.edu. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just

yes, i said jedi, and ben bernanke.ory you have been looking for. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week... i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop ta

bernanke. as you see dow industrials up .75, 13886 and change. sue and bob at the stock exchange. we start with senior economics reporter steve liesman. steve. >> reporter: thanks very much, tyler. fed chairman offering an expected defense of easing. market committee concerned about the cost of more qe and rates as he was to the senators. the fed chairman essentially saying although there's a long period of low rates, could incur excessive risks, he's concerned the cost is outweighed by the benefits from a stronger economic recovery. bernanke also had a sparp exchange with republican senator from tennessee bob corker on the issue of whether the fed is too close to the banks it regulates and whether paying interest on reserve is a massive bank subsidy. >> getting ready in the last few years, as you've alluded to, when interest rates rise, to basically have to print money to sell securities at losses and then pay interest on reserves which people pointed out, and i think you've talked about, is g

bernanke. poll of traders of what they think. generally bernanke will stay the course.erwhelming consensus. he's got to. he'll basically back up bullard's comments last week that they'll keep the qe running until 2014. most of the traders feel he can't really go anywhere else, while acknowledging the possibility of some kind of bubble, although he won't use that term, developing. elsewhere, sequestration, i took a poll here, too. the most immediate effect everybody seems to see is on health care and defense. but there's a lot of debate whether sequestration will have any serious effect on the stock market. bank of america had a report out this morning, the stocks will be hit because the valuations are high, not necessarily because people will get laid off, they acknowledge that, but the valuations are high. health care stocks will get hit, but the valuations will be lower. likely 2% cut will kick in if sequestration occurs. jim, this was not bad. retail, not bad for a ho-hum holiday season that everybody was moaning and groaning about here. yes, they're cautious on 2013

here this is the lloyd horror frog blankfein and this is horror frog ben bernanke you. are. yes i saw that fact on twitter but facts that this horror frog exists and i thought it was a good analogy for the global financial markets and central banking monetary policy is there literally ripping their limbs off an order to defend themselves even if what they're defending themselves from is kind of fictional the currency war isn't there it's a race to the bottom they're all trying to deep bass simultaneously it's a suicide banker they have suicide bombers and we have to some bankers and they basically have cut from the same horror cloth so here's the headline regarding this horror frog ben bernanke bernanke you seen buying one point one four trillion in assets and twenty fourteen federal reserve chairman ben s. bernanke is latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in the first quarter of two thousand and fourteen according to median estimates in a bloomberg survey of economists well he thinks she's fighting deflation an

frickin snow global fraud perpetrated by bernanke so hard up there is the heart of darkness. nothing but. the amazing thing is that house prices the total stock of housing has fallen by four trillion dollars in value in the united states since the crisis began so he's bought one point four trillion in the first round and now he's buying six hundred billion of mortgage backed securities so he's bailing out somebody is clearly not the homeowner now the bad thing about all of these fed asset purchases these mortgage backed securities he's buying forty billion dollars a month of mortgage backed bonds forty five billion dollars a month the treasuries. according to the economists surveyed by bloomberg said asset purchases will probably do little to help reduce seven point eight percent unemployment economist said with fifty seven percent of them predicting the program won't help boost the number of jobs created this year so it's doing nothing again for the real economy it's only wealth transferring money from pensioners and savers and it's bailing out the horror frogs who of the ba

i am going to get back to the special guest in the bernanke hearing today.oining us from capitol hill, tom coburn, republican from oklahoma, senator coburn, as always, welcome back. >> thanks. good to be with you. >> you were in the bernanke hearing today, the senate banking committee, and the fed chairman said that this budget sequester, the budget sequester is going to damage the economy. slow things down. do you agree with him? >> well, i think if you calculate it as $85 billion and you took it out over a year it will slow it down. it is about 0.2% . >> you are helping the economy to grow, certainly in the long run and maybe the short run. >> what most people don't realize, this will be the second time in since world war ii we have actually made a cut in spending at the federal government level and even though they make this 1.2 trillion, the actual government spending still going to rise every year. so the first time we did that was 1995. we sequestered about we did a recision in the house and cut about $60 billion. one of the reasons we got the balanced

this essential banking fee or a frog ben bernanke he and a real horror banker have been captured in the wild by the bonsai institute and here this is the lloyd horror frog blankfein and this is horror frog ben bernanke you. are. though or. yes i saw that fact on twitter but we were facts that this horror frog exists and i thought it was a good analogy for the global financial markets and central banking monetary policy is there literally ripping their limbs off an order to defend themselves even if what they're defending themselves from is kind of fictional was the currency war isn't there it's a race to the bottom they're all trying to deep bass simultaneously it's a suicide banker you have suicide bombers and we have two sons bankers and they basically have cut from the same horror cloth so here's the headline regarding this horror frog ben bernanke bernanke you seen buying one point one four trillion in assets and twenty fourteen federal reserve chairman ben s. bernanke these latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in the

so ai, tell us, what's ben bernanke looking for? >> well, bernanke is looking specifically at the jobs market. he wants more americans to hold more jobs before he exits all monetary policy. and he still feels the unemployment rate is too high at the moment. so the head of the u.s. federal reserve has defended the central bank's monetary stimulus package. this has eased concerns fed officials would cut short their asset-buying program. chairman ben bernanke on tuesday presented his semi-annual report to the senate. he acknowledged bold monetary easing could cause inflation but stressed the merit of the policy. >> we do not see potential cost to the increased risk taking in some financial markets as outweighing the benefits of promoting a strong economic recovery and more rapid job creation. >> bernanke also warned imminent spending cuts could put the brakes on recovery if they take effect on march 1st. he urged republicans and democrats to set aside their differences to find a solution. now, bernanke also said he understood japanese

a max this essential banking fee out hora frog ben bernanke and a real horror a banker have been captured in the wild by the bonzai institute and here this is the lloyd horror frog blankfein and this is horror frog ben bernanke you. are. the. yes i sold that fact on twitter but facts that this horror frog exists and i thought it was a good analogy for the global financial markets and central banking monetary policy is there literally ripping their limbs off an order to defend themselves even if what they're defending themselves from is kind of fictional the currency war isn't there it's a race to the bottom they're all trying to deep bass simultaneously it's a suicide banker you have suicide bombers and we have to some bankers and they basically have cut from the same horror cloth so here's the headline regarding this horror frog ben bernanke bernanke you seen buying one point one four trillion in assets and twenty fourteen federal reserve chairman ben s. bernanke these latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in the first quart

frickin snow global fraud perpetrated by bernanke so hard up there in the heart of darkness. nothing but. the amazing thing is that house prices the total stock of housing has fallen by four trillion dollars in value in the united states since the crisis began so he's bought one point four trillion in the first round and now he's buying six hundred billion of mortgage backed securities so he's bailing out somebody is clearly not the homeowner now the bad thing about all of these fed asset purchases these mortgage backed securities he's buying forty billion dollars a month of mortgage backed bonds and forty five billion dollars a month to treasuries. according to the economists surveyed by bloomberg fed asset purchases will probably do little to help reduce seven point eight percent unemployment economists said with fifty seven percent of them predicted in the program won't help boost the number of jobs created this year so it's doing nothing again for the real economy it's only wealth transferring money from pensioners and savers and it's bailing out the horror frogs who of t

creature is this ben horror for burning a max this essential banking fee or a frog ben bernanke and a real horror a banker had been captured in the wild by the bonsai institute and here this is the lloyd horror frog blankfein and this is horror frog ben bernanke. yes i saw that fact on twitter fax that this horror frog exists and i thought it was a good analogy for the global financial markets and central banking monetary policy is they're literally ripping their limbs off an order to defend themselves even if what they're defending themselves from is kind of fictional the currency war isn't there it's a race to the bottom they're all trying to base simultaneously it's a suicide banker you have suicide bombers and we have to some bankers and they basically have cut from the same horror cloth so here's the headline regarding this horror frog ben bernanke bernanke you seen buying one point one four trillion in assets and twenty fourteen federal reserve chairman ben s. bernanke these latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in

ben bernanke these latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in the first quarter of two thousand and fourteen according to median estimates in a bloomberg survey of economists well he thinks she's fighting deflation and he thinks she's really neutralizing any impact of inflation but as we know people are watering down milk portions so procter and gamble go to the store a little so patters they're smaller the coca-cola is smaller but the same price here in the u.k. they're serving horse meat instead of beef in their burgers that's inflation but they don't recognize it as such they they're so sound of one hand clapping it's a one eyed food policy when hank laughing doesn't make any noise that's been. well let's look at this chart here this is the fed's balance sheet from two thousand and eight you see the horror frog moment you see when ben bernanke rips the leg off of the u.s. financial markets and currency system because in the first round of purchases begun in two thousand and eight the fed bought one point four trillion d

ben bernanke, chairman bernanke, help me out. did you state why nor testimony that we need to make structural changes to entitlement programs, or did you say that front loaded spending cuts require, but policies that reduce the federal deficit more gradually in the "new york times" but more substantially in the longer term? >> yes, i said, congresswoman, i said that you need to look at the long run. >> okay. >> which is where the problems are most serious. >> mr. chairman, it's been stated that the housing sector has continued to see improvements with increased construction activity and higher home prices. as you know, the rate of economic recovery relies heavily on a robust housing market, and i'm interested in hearing from you what will be the effect to the economy if fannie mae, freddy mack, and the fha were scaled back or abolished as some policymakers have proposed? >> well, currently, fannie, freddie, and fha, the whole mortgage market. there's not much other than portfolio lending by banks, there's not much in the way of a

i know prior guests on saying it's all bernanke. i agree the fed is backstopping things, but did you see how we took off this morning? the transports exploded at 9:30 on the durable goods number and big multi-industry companies move up. that's not bernanke. markets responding to economic news. >> bob makes a great point. do you think new money comes in as the market hits new highs? >> i think new money has been creeping in. i don't think it's going to come in like by the wheelbarrow full. people are very cautious and starting to tip their toes back in. moving out of bonds slowly and picking their spots. >> $800 billion came out of stock mutual funds from 2008 to 2012. 1 trillion went into bond mutual funds. >> that's correct. >> that's a money tavern cash. >> let's not forget all the money into etfs, a real rotation. >> still small numbers compared to what the some mutual fund outflows are. still very small. >> as you see the retail investor keep seeing the headlines of the market going higher and higher as they are waiting and wait

i thought ben bernanke would set the record straight.ughing at the federal reserve wants to do is to make the market second-guess. are they going to keep super easy policy or keep buying bonds, what is going to happen. i think today, that was one of his main goals, was to set the record straight and make sure that the market knew that the fed is going to be very easy for a long time. ashley: as for your clients and investors, you say the focus on earnings for this year over the next 12 months, what do you see that being? >> i will tell you that earnings growth this year is going to be modest. we are not crawling out of a recession or a whole anymore. maybe 5% or something like that. nothing to write home about, but in that environment, the economy is going to continue to recover. maybe we see 2.5% gdp growth in the states. the global economy kind of rolling on. if you believe that, you need to be looking at stocks that are sensitive to that. the consumer discretionary sector. the technology sector. materials. those sectors have not perfo

plus, ben bernanke goes back to capitol hill. yesterday the markets rallied on what the fed chairman had to say with support of easy monetary policy. it's wednesday, february 27, 2013. we have one day or two days left in the month. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> you called me a dove. maybe in some respects i am. but on the other hand, my inflation record is the best of any federal reserve chairman in the post-war period or at least one of the best. about 2% average inflation. so we have worked on both sides of the mandate. and we're trying to achieve a stronger economy for everybody. >>> good morning, everyone, welcome to "squawk box" on this next to the last day of february. it is not a leap year this year. you know that, joe. friday is march 1. i'm becky quick along with joe kerner and andrew ross sorkin. we've been watching the u.s. equity futures. after triple-digit gains for the market yesterday, you see a little bit of a pullback this morning. dow futures down by 15 points. s&p futures off by 2.5 points. and the dow rec

>> ben bernanke is defending his policies.re was a bit of a negation as bob pointed out on the upside as to what the minutes opened up. maybe early cancellation for some buyback programs. nobody on the floor i talked to really is jumping into that mode. the big news today is really new home sales. if you look at the chart, it was the best level since july '08. i wish ben bernanke would have addressed that. some markets are hailing rather well. ten-year no yields paying attention to many other things. just consider this, spanish ten-year up 20 basis points today. italian ten-year up 40 basis points today. it may be a while before we sort the politics out. i think the nagging issues of europe are going to continue to give a little extra buying into the treasury market. back to you. >> more on what's happening there in a second with michelle caruso-cabrera. thank you, rick, bob. by now you should know ben bernanke testified before the banking committee today. steve, you said the rally was thanks to bernanke's defense of qe which

some are calling this the bernanke bounce. the stocks soared after the two-day testimony on capitol hill. >> the evidence thus far is that the housing market is hit the bottom and is recovering. we've seen rising prices over the last year or so. we're seeing some significant increases in starts. and sales. foreclosures are still too high, but they're coming down. the number of people under water on their mortgages is coming down. so we're still far from where we would like to be. but the evidence is that the housing market is strengthening and that low mortgage rates are one reason for that strengthening. >> although a long period of low rates could encourage successful risk taking and continued attention, the developments is certainly warranted. to they point, we do not see the potential costs and some risk taking is outweighing the benefits of a stronger growing economy and more rapid job creation. >> we are seeing positive reaction in europe and asia today. the nikkei was up by 2.7%, a gain of over 300 points. the hang seng

bernanke these latest round of bond buying will reach one point one four trillion dollars before he ends the program in the first quarter of two thousand and fourteen according to median estimates in a bloomberg survey of economists well he thinks he's fighting deflation and he thinks he's really neutralizing any impact of inflation but as we know people are watering down milk portions so procter and gamble go to the store a little so patters they're smaller the coca-cola is smaller but the same price here in the u.k. they're serving horse meat instead of beef in their burgers that's inflation but they don't recognize it as such they they're so sound of one hand clapping it's a one eyed football see one hand clapping doesn't make any noise. well let's look at this chart here this is the fed's balance sheet from two thousand and eight you see the horror frog moment you see when ben bernanke rips the leg off of the u.s. financial markets and currency system because in the first round of purchases begun in two thousand. eight the fed bought one point four trillion dollars of housing debt an

frickin snow global fraud perpetrated by bernanke so hard up there in the heart of darkness. nothing but. in the amazing thing is that house prices the total stock of housing has fallen by four trillion dollars in value in the united states since the crisis began so he's bought one point four trillion in the first round and now he's buying six hundred billion of mortgage backed securities so he's bailing out somebody is clearly not the homeowner now the bad thing about all of these fed asset purchases these mortgage backed securities he's buying forty billion dollars a month of mortgage backed bonds and forty five billion dollars a month to treasuries. according to the economists surveyed by bloomberg said asset purchases will probably do little to help reduce seven point eight percent unemployment economist said with fifty seven percent of them predicting the program won't help boost the number of jobs created this year so it's doing nothing again for the real economy it's only wealth transferring money from pensioners and savers and it's bailing out the horror frogs who of

federal reserve ben bernanke has defended the central bank's policy of monetary easing. he's aiming to eliminate speculation the bank will scale back asset buying sooner than expected. bernanke testified before house of representatives lawmakers on wednesday. >> significant majority of the committee is supportive of the policies we have taken. we haven't done a new review of the exit strategy yet. i think we will have to do that sometime soon. we're quite comfortable we can exit in way that's both smooth and in which we provide lots of information to markets in advance so they will know what's coming and be able to anticipate it. >> bernanke referred to monetary policy in japan saying policy had been too cautious in the past. bernanke noted that the new prime minister and his nominee for bank of japan governor will likely push for bold monetary measures to end deflation. let's get a check on the markets. tokyo share prices are trading higher today with export related stocks leading the gains. investors are feeling positive. better than expected housing numbers are also p

ben bernanke and elizabeth warren.es not like the banks and asked the chairman if the big banks were still too big to fail of the here is some of the exchange. >> the benefits of being large are going to be small -- are going to decline over time and some banks are going to voluntarily begin to reduce their size because they're not getting the benefits they used to get. >> i read you on this, i read your predictions on this in your earlier testimony. so far it looks like 83 billion dollars for staying big. >> that's one study, senator, you don't know whether that's an accurate number. >> well, okay, well go back and look at it again. if you think there's a problem with it, but does it worry you? >> of course, i think this is very important. and i think we need to-- we're putting a lot of effort into this. stuart: guess who is here to talk about the big banks? judge andrew napolitano. elizabeth warren says they're still too big, too big to fail. i say, we should have broken them up, it would have been much easier than t

bernanke is saying growth will be 1.5% instead of 2%. i doubt very much that's the way it's going to pan out. eventually some kind of compromise will be worked out. but again the good news is that the u.s. consumers, u.s. businesses, are beginning to spend, are beginning to hire in the case of businesses, and that momentum seems to actually be picking up a little bit. so even in the worst case scenario we're not talking a recession. we're talking slower growth which isn't good... >> ifill: not good at a time when you're recovering. so when people look at this debate that's going on now, how do we look at it? do we look at it long-term, short term? do we look at the reality or the possibility? what is the greatest, most damaging part of this? >> well, i think the damaging part of it is, you know, this is a very, very bad way to run a government. but the other reality is we have racked up a lot of debt. we do have very big deficits. we have to start cutting them. and so... we can't keep postponing the cuts or the tax increases, however we

between that, bernanke, this is what people are still focused on. it's still here. >> what about you, karen? >> you know, we don't really trade a lot. it was -- i thought it was pretty orderly and not so particularly eventful. that last half hour, though, was fairly ugly. you know, we didn't really step in and buy anything. i have macy's, their coming out with earnings tomorrow. i like to get back to fundamentals and see what companies are earning and what their uplook is. i can't trade around berlusconi or not. leave it to this guy. >> you guys use the word orderly. that's what we saw. the s&p had been trading significantly higher early. when you look at what cracked first, the backbone of the market rally, the financials. if you look at the xlf, it was trading up to almost the 52-week highs, up near that 1790 level, just about. and then we started to pull back. when they went negative, long before the s&p, is s&p was ho holding itself, but then the official financials, they cracked and that started to accelerate throughout the day. later in the af

we reported yesterday massachusetts senator elizabeth warren she was grilling ben bernanke too big to fail pointing out that the big banks get eighty three billion dollars a year in taxpayer subsidies could the big banks even survive without the taxpayers propping them up. well many of them would have already failed so the answer is no but you know ben bernanke wasn't even being honest with sen warren of course he's not honest with anybody but on that particular issue he was disingenuous at best because when she is talking about that subsidy and it's hard to quantify exactly what it is but ben bernanke he acted as if the subsidy was there for the stockholders of the banks it's not the subsidy makes it easier for the banks to borrow money it makes it easier for the banks to attract depositors who want to put their money in an institution that's too big to fail and if you've got more money than the f.d.i.c maximums you want to make sure you're in a bank that's going to get bailed out you don't want to take your chances on a smaller bank and so that does give the big banks an unfair adva

then attacking me lanai defended bernanke for printing many. the federal reserve prints money? to new. but this was a revelation of big government with the is an unelected people doing all sorts of things they did not know that they could do you have the explosion of the deficit always as long as there is polling data with deficits, franklin roosevelt railed against the deficit with you look one level lower at the polling data spending on international affairs americans oppose every single thing, any tax you name or spending other than for it -- foreign-aid and the majority is against it. it is a strong lips' service and the response ravel's whenever it imagined possible. and sure the president doesn't agree with this, but in my view, it wasn't just they did not focus like a laser beam when the economy was nowhere near as bad as broccoli on inherited, he was doing so many things at once but one result it was very hard for the electorate to see the forest for all the trees what did heal health care reform have to do getting people back to work?

bernanke, which is what else is on the u.s. agenda today.he case-shiller price home index is out at 9:00 a.m. eastern. prices call for forecast to rise more than 10%. january new home sales are expected to rise 10%. analysts expect a meeting of 62.4, that will be up nearly four points from january. home depot, auto zone, macy's, senate health care, metro cps all report results before the open. after the close, we'll hear from priceline and tivo. >>> and the fdic releases its quarterly report from bank earnings and the u.s. comptroller puts out his estimates on wall street bonuses again at 10:00. >> as i said, fed chairman ben bernanke will take a lot of the attention. he's on capitol hill today. give part in one of the semi policy on economic policy. there's a lot going on at 10:00 eastern. bernanke is expected to address qe3. some members would like to end the program early. he'll likely say the policy will stay as long as needed but, but he may fuel questions about how the fed would unwind i said easying program. the sequester takes effect

gold prices, if you take a look, surging on ben bernanke's testimony.d's up now looking at a $28 gain, $27 gain, up a couple percent on the session. this is the biggest jump seen in the price of the metal in about three months, guys. ben bernanke making it very clear, defending the asset purchases of the fed, and that is leading to traders hedging against inflation. they are buying gold right now. meantime, this is on a day when goldman sachs has a report saying the gold cycle is over, the gains of the past 12 years are coming to end as the economy improves and investments in gold begin to decline. not so much the case today, guys. we are seeing a lot of buying on the ben bernanke testimony. goldman's three month forecast? 1615 an ounce, about where we are. they are saying gold's going to do nothing over the next several months. there's six and 12 month forecast saying $1600 an ounce, not only saying gold does nothing, but they are calling for it to go down about $15 # over the next yearment back to u -- year. back to you guys. >> thank you very much, s

okay, bernanke did it again, basically. bernanke came out, markets were worried.ple of really bad down days. he said a couple of things, basically, he said he's going to keep up kwant day five easing, fight the other fed governors and he said that he thought stock valuations were still good. may west said too much of a good thing could be wonderful, well, we get it. it doesn't feel real. so, i think it doesn't make sense to swing for the fences, particularly for the safe money kind of clients i have. >> so, what are your picks here? you're getting defensive? >> well, i'm always a little bit defensive, and on that side of my portfolio, i own proctor & gamble, as one of the names i own. you know, this is a couple hundred billion dollar company. 18 times earnings. good dividend, 2.62%. i think those earnings can grow 8%, 9%, plus the dividend. you've got an 11% stock. a couple hundred billion dollar company. they sell gillette and crest and things like that. economic times get stock and stocks start going south. i like that one. >> you always have to clean your teeth

ben bernanke works his hinie off. the hardestworking federal reserve chairman this nation has ever had. i don't know. this much i do, if not for ben we'd probably be in a bigger mess. monetary policy carried the fragile recovery. not fiscal policy. president carrying the nation. congress appears to be turning off the nation. they're all then trying to save the nation. iraq in a storm. buffeted by secondguessing congressman who would sooner blast him than thank him. for at least trying to do their job. now leaving aside they are a lot better at spreading the sheet than reading a spreadsheet, i practiced that, they feel comfortable ripping a guy who patiently listens to their moronic diatribe. i still don't know how all of this artificially holding down interest rates by buying every treasury note and bond and mortgage security the fed can get its hands on is going to work out. i do know that at least the fed has been doing work. like him or not. ben is the reason investors are taking the capital here. they prefer it he