Ben Bernanke, U.s. Economy | featured news

The US Federal Reserve may have underestimated the looming 2007 global financial crisis, released transcripts from its meetings that year have shown. The documents suggested Fed Governor Ben Bernanke wanted to hold off from addressing rising panic in the markets.

The improving housing market is "far from being out of the woods," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday, arguing that overly tight lending standards are part of the problem.

Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a wide-ranging defense Monday of the Federal Reserve's aggressive policies to stimulate the still-weak economy. The Fed needs to drive down long-term borrowing rates because the economy isn't growing fast enough to reduce high unemployment, Bernanke said in a speech to the Economic Club of Indiana. The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.

The Fed is on the verge of expanding its stimulus policies. We learned that much during the meetings in Jackson Hole, Wyo. But what may be more interesting is the undercurrent of discussion about what happens when those measures prove insufficient.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke makes clear in a letter to a House lawmaker that he thinks the Fed can do more to bolster the economic recovery and help reduce unemployment.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday that although broad measurements of the economy point to recovery, many people and businesses are facing tough times.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke gave no indication Tuesday that the central bank was about to launch new economic stimulus, even as the Fed chief painted a worrisome picture of an economy losing momentum on a wide scale.

Ben Bernanke presided over his first meeting as Federal Reserve chairman in March 2006 believing the nation's economy could pull off a "soft landing" from falling home prices. Three months later, Bernanke had begun to grasp that he and others had underestimated the risk housing posed to the economy....

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tells Congress that the US economy is "close to faltering" and more action may be needed.

Bernanke launched a new package of measures to support a limping economy and once again took the kind of unconventional approach that has become a trademark of his tumultuous tenure.