Reply #30: Bernanke Starts Dialogue With Public, Pledges to Keep Stimulus [View All]

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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-28/bernanke-starts-dialogue-with-public-pledges-to-keep-stimulus.html


April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Ben S. Bernanke, at the first press conference by a Federal Reserve Chairman following a policy meeting, said the economy still requires monetary support while the need to contain inflation means further easing is unlikely.

The 57-year-old former Princeton University professor stepped before the television cameras in a top-floor conference room in the Fed’s Washington headquarters yesterday and began a dialogue with the American public about the central bank’s goals and strategies. He explained the tension between reducing an 8.8 percent unemployment rate and keeping a lid on inflation.

“It’s not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk,” Bernanke said to nearly 60 reporters. “Ultimately, if, if inflation persists or if inflation expectations begin to move, then there’s no substitute for action,” he said. “We would have to respond.”

The Fed’s decision to have its chairman hold press conferences four times a year fulfills a key goal Bernanke has sought since he was a governor in 2002. The added transparency, already practiced by central banks from the U.K. to New Zealand, over time is likely to narrow the range of estimates on when the Fed will change course and reduce swings in short-term interest rates, said Julia Coronado at BNP Paribas.



he's gonna need a cardigan and a fireside:eyes: