Posted on 04/27/2011 1:14:42 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The following are highlights from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's press conference on Wednesday after the central bank's monetary policy committee meeting. This is the first regularly scheduled press conference by a Fed chief.
In a statement following the meeting, the Fed said it would finish its $600 billion bond-buying program in June as scheduled, and repeated its plans to keep interest rates low for an "extended period."
ON FED TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY:
"It used to be that the mystique of central banking was all about not letting anybody know what you're doing. As recently as 1994 the Federal Reserve didn't even tell the public when it changed the target rate for the federal funds rate.
...
"It was our judgment that at this point the additional benefits from more information, more transparency, meeting the press directly, outweigh some of these risks."
ON RECOVERY BEING SLOW:
"It is a relatively slow recovery. You can identify reasons for that. The credit factor is one, another .. a bubble in the housing market and the housing market remains very weak. .. Now we are seeing higher oil prices and other things. The combination of high unemployment, high gas prices and high foreclosure rates is a terrible combination, a lot people are having a tough time. I can certainly understand why people are impatient. ..
ON IMPACT OF JAPANESE DISASTER ON THE U.S.:
"For the United States we are looking at this very carefully, thus far, the main impact of the Japanese situation on the U.S. economy has been through supply chains. ..
ON S&P ACTION ON U.S. DEBT RATING:
"In one sense S&P's action didn't really tell us anything because everyone who reads the newspaper knows, that the United States has a very serious long-term fiscal problem. ..
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Ohh yea...very informative ..... NOT
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U.S. Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke is pictured at a first-of-its-kind news conference following a Fed meeting at the Federal Reserve in Washington, April 27, 2011. The Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday it is in no rush to scale back its extensive support for the U.S. economy, while slightly downgrading its view of the economy's recent performance. REUTERS/Jason Reed
I caught part of the press conference and heard only softball questions. Bernanke had a very worried/concerned look on his face. Much more than when he testified before congress.
Thank You Ben, you’ve just given my Silver holdings one helluva goose today.
still 7 million jobs below precrisis levels....
I hope you have physical possession of it.
Have heard that if the next round of bonds are not purchased the feds will force American corporations to buy those bonds.
If that occurs you can count on those bonds being devalued much as the GM bonds were devalued.
This is similar to FDR’s excess profits tax whereby he confiscated the profits of successful American corporations.
Apparently no one made Bernanke answer any questions about:
1. The special favors that seem to be embedded in the billions$ in “free” loans that the Fed sent out as part of its own “stimulus” program.
2. The role that the Fed has had in the rising inflation and the market devaluation of the dollar, and why the Fed has been slow to acknowledge what any supermarket shopper has known for months - the price of EVERYTHING is up and has been going up for months.
3. How the fed’s actions are taking income and value from some of the interest-rate dependent investments that many retired folk are depending on.
and I could go on but my typing hand is tired
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