Bernanke Sees 2010 Economic Recovery `Only If' Markets, Banks Stabilize

[Purveyor]

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy is in a “severe” contraction, and warned the recession may last into 2010 unless policy makers can stabilize the financial system.

“If actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability -- and only if that is the case, in my view - - there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery,” Bernanke said in remarks to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington.

Bernanke’s call for “strong” action by policy makers comes as the Obama administration works on fleshing out the details of its bank-rescue plan. Financial stocks have slumped further since Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled his outline Feb. 10, with officials opening talks with Citigroup Inc. about providing further help to the lender.

“Downside risks probably outweigh those on the upside,” Bernanke said today in his semiannual testimony on the economy, adding that the Fed’s own forecast was clouded by “considerable uncertainty.”

The 55-year-old chairman faces what former Fed chief Paul Volcker called last week a “massive economic crisis,” with rising unemployment, an accelerating decline in output and more than $700 billion in losses and writedowns at financial firms. Bernanke’s outlook was the most negative of any of the semiannual testimonies he has provided to Congress in his three years at the central bank’s helm.

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BLOOMBERG: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aRI6ZCpsKtMI&refer=home

[Donnachaidh]

1. WHY is he still in that office?

He's frigging DELUSIONAL if he thinks the depression will be over in 2009. Kick his ass onto unemployment and see if he likes listening to lies.

[leftofthedial]

2. how does this moron retain any credibility?

[bdamomma]

3. why is this guy still around?

[spartan61]

4. And I am suppose to believe him....why????