Bernanke Meets With House GOP on Economy

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met privately with House Republicans Tuesday, and participants said he steered clear of saying the country is in a recession.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters beforehand that the meeting was called because of "great concern about where our economy is headed."

Bernanke said before the session that he was looking forward to "having a nice, friendly and informative discussion with the leadership here."

A trio of crises _ housing, credit and financial _ are threatening to push the country into a deep recession. Home foreclosures have swelled to record highs, employers are slashing jobs and financial companies have racked up billions of dollars in losses from soured investments in mortgage-backed securities. The situation has sent a tremor through Wall Street and official Washington and affected many Americans.

Bernanke's meeting with House Republicans comes one day before he is slated to go to Capitol Hill to give lawmakers a fresh assessment of economic conditions.

At Tuesday's meeting, Bernanke didn't say the economy is in a recession, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla. told reporters after the session. Participants said Bernanke was closely monitoring the economy's pulse.

On Wall Street, investors began the second quarter in much better spirits. The Dow Jones industrials shot up 391.47 points, buoyed by some hopes that the worst of the credit crisis may have passed.

To try to contain the damage from the sickly economy, the Federal Reserve has aggressively cut a key interest rate to spur buying and investing by people and businesses. It also has taken a series of extraordinary steps in recent weeks and months to prop up the nation's financial system, which has been in danger of seizing up.

The Fed has backed a multibillion dollar lifeline as part of JP Morgan's eleventh-hour deal to buy out the troubled Bear Stearns, the nation's fifth largest investment house. The central bank also _ in the broadest use of its credit authority since the 1930s _ agreed to temporarily let big investment firms secure emergency financing from the Fed, a privilege that previously had only been granted to commercial banks. Those actions have prompted protests from Democrats and other critics, who contend that the Fed is bailing out Wall Street and putting billions of taxpayers' dollars at potential risk.

Comments

[victorberry]

Benanke meets privately with Republicans? As our honorable vice-president Dick would say, "So?" This is just how the fantasy game of democracy is played under rule of the Republican komissar (or kommissar if you prefer the German spelling).

[WIpatriot]

Ha-ha, APRIL FOOLS.

[themodernleader]

The Federal Reserve Chairman is mandated to be righteously neutral. apolitical and objective in dealing with the issues and monitoring of money and banking. Chairman Bernacke has shown his colors by consisting siding with the monied interests while consistently ignoring the general interests. This abdication of leadership to job descriptions is a contagion within our system of governance.
The extraordinary negligence and incompetence of the Bush appointees, modeling after the ignominous President, has spread downward through the myriad bureaucracies and elected leaders' administrations throughout our bereft, anchorless Republic. The CEO's incompetent leadership is emulated by his Cabinet administrators and their own subordinates and so on. In my beleaguered, bankrupt State, the Governor has modeled his leadership after the President. My son's corporate CEO was overheard commending "President Bush's leadership style".
The growth or decay of an organization was, is and always will be in the managerial hands of the chief executive officer. We have had a run of medicore to corrupt, egregiously incompetent presidents these past 4-5 decades. We must covet the competence and wisdom of a Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt or Truman in any new leader chosen to turn this country into a new direction of achievement and marked performance. If not, be prepared for the indispensible man of the hour who requires absolute authority while promising everything.

[FreedomCorpse]

They look so important and powerful as the very people who have created the mess and are flailing around in quicksand dragging everyone with them. Take a good look at the people in that photo who have done more to damage the USA than any other terrorist could hope to do. Let's see what will they decide....more deregulation and non-transparency of banks and investment firms and...oh yeah...more outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing to 'make it more competitive' TM. The 'service' based economy means war and more war since that is all we seem to produce.

[ErnestineBass]

So Helicopter Ben meets with JUST the Repukes the day before he speaks before Congress.

I gotta hand it to the BOOOsh crew. Deze guys got some kinda balls.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Bo when Bennie appears before the Congress, let's hope some Dems squeeze his cajones real good.

[Robin1962]

THE WAR IN IRAQ IS HAVING SERIOUS NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON OUR ECONOMY and those who voted for the war (i.e. hillary) should be to blame, in part, for the state of the US economy.

Look how the WAR IN IRAQ is affecting the US economy...

$3,000,000,000� 3 billion dollars PER WEEK! That is the amount America is paying for the Iraq War PER WEEK, money that should have been used here, at home.

Add to this:

Interest. We are financing the war with borrowed money (e.g. treasuries) that carries interest; so in actuality, the war is costing the United States MORE THAN 3 billion dollars PER WEEK.

Higher oil and energy prices. Instability in Iraq is adding roughly 30 dollars per barrel as a premium.

High utility bills. Due to high oil prices, demand shifts to other sources of energy - gas, coal, etc. - and greater demand will raise the equilibrium price of all sources of energy

Our dollar is weak and getting weaker. Since we have a trade deficit and is growing in large part to the rising cost of imported oil, the value of goods and services we import exceeds the value of goods we export. Everything we buy that's made abroad will cost more, Ceteris Peribus, because the dollar is weak.

Lastly, how do you think the world views our country since the argument was made for war? The evidence was weak and circumstantial, yet we rushed into war with Iraq thanks to hillary"s authorization.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

The agenda for this meeting was to determing new ways to screw the middle class.

[joebaggadonuts]

So is he having a meeting with the Democrats too, or is this just another part of the hide the salami game these Republicans folks are playing with our money?

[WIpatriot]

Don't these guys just make you sick?

[Rule Of Law]

The Fed is supposed to be non-political (yeah, right!) so why is he meeting with the minority Republicans and not the majority Dems?

[djthedj]

Because the Democrats will fold and do whatever the Republicans tell them to do. Print and borrow, print and borrow and let the thievery continue! Go Fed!!!!

[ErnestineBass]

Sad but true, I'm afraid.

[WIpatriot]

Yup, that's what I was gonna tell Rule, but he knows it, I think, and was just asking a rhetorical question.