What a whiner. At least he's coming around to what many said months ago that inflation needs to be tamed. Earlier in this cycle many said that the Fed was too focused on Wall Street at the expense of everyone else. Bailing out Wall Street and throwing wads of cash at them was only delaying the inevitable and probably feeding inflation. It's clear now that he ignored inflation and it's coming back in a big way. It certainly didn't help us avoid a meltdown, which looks like our future in the near term.
The problem for many of us is that his policies reflected the same old coddling of Wall Street - who benefited tremendously from the subprime policies - and left the problem for everyone else. For once it would be nice if the Fed stopped being an arm of Wall Street and looked out for everyone else. Even now Bernanke is propping up the banks - which of course he needs to do - but the high rollers still are getting a much easier ride compared to the middle class. I don't care what his term is, he needs to go very early on after the election. We need a break from the old ways that have ceased working for the country as a whole.
In long-awaited testimony at the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Bernanke avoided the word “recession” in characterizing the current economy, noting instead that consumer spending and exports were keeping growth “at a sluggish pace” while the housing sector “continues to weaken.”
“The economy has continued to expand, but at a subdued pace,” Mr. Bernanke said. But he added that spending for personal goods had “advanced at a modest pace so far this year, generally holding up somewhat better than might have been expected given the array of forces weighing on household finances and attitudes.”
He said that while the risks to the overall economy were still “skewed to the downside,” inflation “seems likely to move temporarily higher in the near term.” The Fed, Mr. Bernanke said, needed to guard against higher prices spreading throughout the economy.
Main & gay blog