Unemployment, Federal Reserve Chairman | featured news

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that long-term unemployment is a “national crisis” and suggested that Congress should take further action to combat it. He also said lawmakers should provide more help to the battered housing industry.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Friday that there's increasing evidence that a "self-sustaining" economic recovery is taking hold, but he said the Fed's $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program is still needed because it will take years for unemployment to drop to more normal levels.

The U.S. economy will grow more than expected in the third quarter, but unemployment also will continue to increase and will pass 10 percent, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday.