Posted on 02/24/2009 11:25:27 AM PST by LottieDah
NEW YORK – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has steadied Wall Street by telling Congress the recession might end this year.
In his semiannual report to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke predicted the economy is likely to keep contracting in the first six months of 2009. But he also said "there is a reasonable prospect" the recession will end this year. He warns that a recovery will require getting credit and financial markets to operate normally.
Bernanke's comments helped the market absorb a worrisome report on consumer spending. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for February came in at 25, well below expectations. The finding is the latest sign that consumers are deeply worried about the recession and the safety of their jobs.
The Fed chairman spoke a day after the government moved closer to dramatically expanding its ownership stakes in the nation's banks, including Citigroup Inc. The Treasury Department, the Fed and other banking regulators said Monday they could convert the government's stock in the banks from preferred shares to common shares.
The market was up a day after another sharp drop in stocks that left the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index near 12-year lows. Some bargain-hunting was to be expected after a big pullback; the Dow fell 251 points and the major indexes all fell more
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
That’s why I went to cash. We will get more of the pompous BS he has been spewing for weeks and then he will announce the appointment of various commissions and czars for this and that. He will blame Bush and whine about inheriting this crisis. Finally he will offer some discouragingly ambiguous, and suspiciously socialistic, solutions to the auto industry, housing, and banking industry problems. At the end of it all the markets will crash as America recognizes again that we have elected an economic imbecile.
To be blunt...there is ZERO chance of Bernanke being right.
Consider this...the states themselves are in terrible financial shape and expected to ask for package that will go into the one trillion range. Timing is such...that they will try to wait until after the next car-industry bailout.
Then you toss in issues with about two hundred cities in America....which have miscalculated their retirement pensions, their health packages, and the ability to provide basic services. Birmingham, Bama, has a billion-dollar waste treatment plant...that is way beyond what they can pay or expect locals to pay (its probably 300 percent of what the city needed for capability).
As summer approaches, both VISA and Master Card will find thousands of people have given up paying their $500 a month check (over their $40k debt in charge funds, at 19 percent interest). Both will approach the government for some kinda bailout, but no one is going to sign off on paying Bubba’s funtime. I’m thinking that one of these will go under before December, unless the Feds step in.
Toss in oil companies, national airports, trucking companies, hotel chains, and just about everyone else. By December, we will just about cut everyone off and admit we can’t bailout no more folks. At that point, we will start to hit bottom. For about 100 days, you will be about as miserable as possibly can be...with zero trust in your nation, your leadership or recovery.
The only company in America for the next three years that will make money....is Wal-Mart. We will all shop there....buy cheaply....and settle on just surviving through this four to six year period.
My humble opinion is that 2010 will be the worst part of the whole episode. If a guy can pay off his car, his charge cards and his immediate debt beyond the house right now....then do so. Prepare mentally. It will be a period that we can survive.
As for Bernanke....he will come and go. Don’t count on hearing his name beyond this fall. He will be forgotten.
It’s all due to BC telling BO to STFU...LOL.
Then stay the $%&k away from them.
and watch them tomorrow after the messiah speaks tonite...i guess he is going to try some upbeat talk tonite like slick willie advise huh...this should be a hoot...i saw a poll on cnn where a total of 61% of americans said they would not watch it at all and some would read about it later....
What a joke!...first it’s doom and gloom according to Zero then this crap statement from Bernanke? What bunch of Bozos! Of course the market stages a suckers rally to grab people stupid enough to get in!
Allow me to correct the title:
Bernanke: Recession may (the hope part) end in '09; Stocks don't crashclimb (the change part)
Another shoe to drop from the centipede is that because many states are in the hole, they will vacuum up any tax breaks given to the taxpayers and thus dilute any "stimulus".
Peter Schiff Calls Fed Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke A Liar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drJ6QxSO5gw
How can you say that. He's every bit as good as Dick Morris!
Bernanke must not be taking the effects of the Socialist solution into consideration. The problem that created the bigger problem isn’t the problem that is going to solve the bigger problem. It is going to keep making it bigger.
The “financial crisis” was contrived the the Democrats with the help of George Soros to get Zero elected. Of course the recessiona “may end in ‘09. Its all part of the plan to make a hero out of the Zero.
Whistling in the dark.
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