dr. bernanke began a second term as chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve on february 1 of 2010. dr. bernanke also serves as chairman of the federal open market committee, the systems principle monetary policy making body, he originally took office as chairman on february 1, 2006, when he began a 14-year term as a member of the board. dr. bernanke was chairman of the president's council of economic advisers from june ever '05 to january of '06. dr. bernanke was a chaired professor at princeton university, he has been a professor of economics and public affairs at princeton since 1985. mr. chairman, welcome. >> thank you. chairman casey, vice chairman brady and other members of the committee, i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the economic outlook and economic policy. kplik growth has continued at a moderate rate so far this year. real gdp rose at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter, after increasing at a 3% pace in the fourth quarter twof 011. growth last quarter was supported by further gains in private domestic demand which more than offset a drag from de

dr. bernanke. thank you very much for all the things you have done in for being with us here tied to talk about these issues. i think that we've come a long way considering the financial meltdown that occurred back in 2007 but we still have long way to go after that. there's still some things that congress must do to ensure we do not go down the same path of our european counterparts, and i think that's an interesting set of circumstances there. the end of the recession our economy has steadily improved. we're still working hard on that. we have create four million private sector jobs and inemployment imcreased to 8.2%. president obama i think deserves enormous credit for turning the economy around. if it had not been his action and those of the democratic majority, i have no doubt our country would have fallen into a deeper economic depression. so, we obviously have long way to go, but the president is on the right path. the feds' aggressive action and monetary policies that have stimulated the ec

dr. bernanke was a chaired professor at prince son university. he has been a from guess sor of economics and public affairs at princeton since 1985. mr. chairman, welcome. >> thank you. chairman casey, vice chairman brady, and other members of the committee, i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the economic outlook and economic policy. economic growth has continued at a moderate rate so far this year. real gdp rose at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter after increasing at a 3% pace in the fourth quarter of 2011. growth last quarter was supported by further gains in private domestic demand which more than offset a drag from decline in government spending. labor market conditions improved in the latter part of 201 # 11 and earlier this rate. the unemployment rate has fallen 1 percentage point since last august and payroll increased on average during the first three months of this year up from 150,000 jobs added per month in 2011. in april and may, however, the reported pace of job gains slowed to an average of 75,000 per month and the un

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

dr. bernanke, welcome to our committee again. i just want to pick um -- senator demipt used the word quagmire, senator coats used the term skull seed. i have to admit i'm concerned about some of these same things. the vice chair of the fed yesterday at the boston economic club described adverse shocks that could push the economy into territory where a self-reinforcing downward spil of economic weakness would be difficult to arrest. i'm not an economist, but that sounds bad. bad. right? >> the concern she's expressing is is that if growth is not sufficiently strong, that it wouldn't take too much to put us back into a -- >> that's correct. >> -- either a recession or at least a significant slowdown. >> so i won't admit to having trouble sleeping every night, but what bothers me at night is lehman brothers. when i wake up at 3:00 in the morning, that is what i worried about. i don't know what lehman brothers would look like. i don't know what it would be in this country or perhaps be in europe, but i think she summed it up pretty w

dr. bernanke was the member of the council of economic incisors from june of 05 to january of 06.prior to beginning public service commission was a chaired professor princeton university, he's been a professor of economics and public affairs at princeton since 1985. mr. chairman, welcome. >> thank you. pitcher mukasey, vice chairman brady and members of the committee, i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the economic outlook in the comic policy. economic growth has continued at a moderate rate so far this year. real gdp rose at an annual rate of about 2% in the first quarter after increasing at a 3% pace in the fourth quarter of 2011. growth last quarter was supported by further gains in private domestic demand which more than offset the drug for the decline in the government spending. labor market conditions improved the latter part of 2011 and earlier this year. the unemployment rate of about one percentage point since last august and palin limit increased to under 25,000 per month on average during the first three months of this year up from about 150,000 jobs added in 2011

dr. bernanke, welcome to our committee again. i just want to pick up, senator domenici is the word quagmire. senator coats used the term stall speed. i have to admit i am concerned about some of the same things. the vice chair of the said yesterday of the dice and economic clout described adverse shocks that could push the economy into territory where it's self reinforcing downward spiral of economic week this could be difficult to arrest. i am not an economist, but that sounds bad. is that right? >> the concern she is expressing is that it produces not sufficiently strong to it wouldn't take too much to put us back into a recession or a significant slowdown. >> so i wanted me went admit to having trouble sleeping every night, but what does bother me as lehman brothers and when i wake up at 3:00 in the morning come and that is what i'm worried about. i don't know what lehman brothers looks like. i don't know whether it's in this country or perhaps in europe, but i think she summed it up pretty well and this is reported on the cnb

dr. bernanke serves as chairman of the federal open market committee, the principle of this -- principal policy-making body. he took office in 2006 when he began a 14-year term as a member of the board. he was chairman of the president's council of economic advisers from june 2005 through january of 2006 prior -- 2006. he was a chaired professor at princeton and has been a professor of economics and public affairs at princeton since 1985. >> thinking. i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the economic outlook and policy. economic growth has continued at a moderate rate so far this year. real gdp rose at an annual rate of 2% in this quarter after increasing at a 3% pace in the fourth quarter of 2011. growth last quarter was supported by further gains in private domestic demand which more than offset a drag from decline in government spending. labor market conditions improved in the latter part of 2011 and earlier this year. the unemployment rate has fallen one percentage point since last august. payroll employment increased 225,000 per month on average during the first three months of

dr. bernanke about it at length tomorrow. it is probably the biggest thing to affect our economy and we have no control over it. there is a huge mountain of debt. we have turned over a huge part of our destiny over to somebody else. what is happening in china would not have as big impact on us as it does. we have exposed ourselves to risk over which we have little control and that is truly unfortunate. host: david from virginia. caller: hi. i woke up and i'm listening to you and i have tremendous respect for what you're saying. voice of reason. i've been in the army for about 20 years. i am concerned about education in the u.s. there is this structural systemic voice that we're not facing and the effects of automation and the paradox of productivity. i do think there is a magic bullet about getting millions back to work. there is a magic bullet.com to get a preview. we have great ideas and are communicating the right things to america. just stay the course. i appreciate your hard work. guest: i am not familiar with the websit

dr. bernanke.sures, and the one interesting thing that the fed said that was of note was that what they want to try and do perhaps is do what the bank of england is trying to do, credit easing, the idea being that if they're going to do qe going forward they have to sell it and in order to sell it they have to convince the market if they do qe it's going to allow everybody in the country to refinance mortgages. if they can actually achieve anything close to that, if we can imagine an idea where all of the mortgages in the u.s. could get refinanced at a lower rate that would be highly stimulative. i think the market issing looing at all of this big macro supposition and thinking that perhaps there may be enough liquidity to keep ris aclife which is why you see the euro trading relatively high to the dollar. >> ed? >> when you talk about the fed policy, one of the things that markets worry about and particularly when, as it relates to gold as well is whether the fed can actually reduce its inflationa

dr. bernanke serves as chairman of the federal open market committee, the principle of this -- principal policy-making body. he took office in 2006 when he began a 14-year term as a member of the board. he was chairman of the president's council of economic advisers from june 2005 through january of 2006 prior -- 2006. he was a chaired professor at princeton and has been a professor of economics and public affairs at princeton' since 1985. >> thinking. i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the economic outlook and policy. economic growth has continued at a moderate rate so far this year. real gdp rose at an annual rate of 2% in this quarter after increasing at a 3% pace in the fourth quarter of 2011. growth last quarter was supported by further gains in private domestic demand which more than offset a drag from decline in government spending. labor market conditions improved in the latter part of 2011 and earlier this year. the unemployment rate has fallen one percentage point since last august. payroll employment increased 225,000 per month on average during the first three months of

dr. j, what was your reaction to the market-to-today when it comes to positioning ahead of these events? >> number one, bernanke kept his powder dry. he could make some sort of a statement, and he's very aware that if he does, he'd move markets and he'd rather hold for that when it's needed. he didn't have to today because of china and because, quite frankly, gasoline prices adjusting as they have and so forth. both of those are positives. also, i think you've got the potential for the nervousness ahead of, of course, the election that's just over a week away in greece. a lot of traders are focused on that, as well they should be. if you're a short-term trader taking money off the table as tim talked about, if you're on the long side on the 100-point pop in the dow today, brilliant trade. on the other side, if you're a longer term trader and you're not in and out every day like that, i think the setup is very strong. china rarely makes just one rate cut. they are going to make multiple rate cuts. >> that's the first one in four years. the last one came in the crisis that came -- interconnected in the entire tre