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Spurring stronger growth and more robust job creation in the weak recovery are top priorities for the Federal Reserve, Chairman Ben Bernanke told a military audience at a rare public forum on Thursday.
"For a lot of people, I know, it doesn't feel like the recession ever ended," Bernanke said in remarks prepared for delivery before a town hall-style forum at which he is expected to field questions from 175 military personnel and family members.
Bernanke said the 9 percent jobless rate and record numbers of long-term unemployed Americans are serious problems preoccupying policymakers.
"We at the Federal Reserve have been focusing intently on supporting job creation. Supporting job creation is half of our marching orders, so to speak," he said.
The Fed's other job is to keep inflation in check. Bernanke said inflation should moderate and remain close to the Fed's preferred level of 2 percent or a bit less for the foreseeable future.
Bernanke defended aggressive Fed policies against critics who charge the U.S. central bank has recklessly printed money without regard for the dangers of inflation or a weaker dollar.
"It is important to understand that this type of activity isn't the same as government spending," he said.
The town hall meeting was the latest in a series of public outreach efforts Bernanke has made to underscore the efforts the central bank is pursuing to help ordinary Americans cope with the Great Recession. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Bernanke has attended half a dozen informal gatherings in Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities.
Thursday's town hall meeting was his first in Texas. Fed officials say Bernanke chose the location because he wanted to highlight the base's successful financial literacy program.
Republicans have focused on attacking the Fed's extensive easy money policies, saying the central bank has failed to revive the economy despite cutting interest rates to near zero and buying $2.3 trillion in bonds. Some have warned the Fed against taking actions best left to fiscal policy makers.
Democrats have charged the Fed with implementing policies that benefit Wall Street while disregarding the economic struggles of ordinary Americans. Some argue Fed policymakers should be subject to greater accountability.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Hey dumbass. The Fed, Government, doesn't create jobs...it's the private sector. Get it through your thick skull.
I believe Bernanke said they were trying to "support" job creation, not actually create jobs. It may seem like a small point, but Fed policies do have significant impact in the private sector and that does impact what companies choose to do or not do.
Hey Bev before you go spouting off about a topic which you obviously know nothing maybe you should read about the Fed's dual mandate ENACTED BY CONGRESS. Mr. Bernanke, even in the face of withering and unjust criticism, has saved the economy from the Second Great Depression. It literally took our Nation 12 years and the Second World War to come out of the first Great Depression so IMO you should look at the facts before you go blasting off. Mr. Bernanke has spent his entire life studying the Great Depression and the subsequent recovery. If the GOP would get out of the way and quit trying to mae President Obama a one term President then our Nation would make strides forward. Furthermore, the private sector has created ZERO net new US jobs in over a decade. That's correct: ZERO! The so-called "job creators" are the biggest bunch of overpaid failures in the history f the World. They are given every benefit imaginable, from wealth to power, to connections, to education, etc... and yet they still cannot create one net plus job in the entire country. For every job they fill they send ten overseas and they terminate an additional five here at home. These failures that you call job creators should be taxed out of existence and the World would be a much better place.
Beev it is a lost cause, they are clueless and stupid to boot!
G-9 you should go read some more Infowars instead of spending all your time here.
The man who saved us from the fire, Bernanke, also set it.
G-9
And maybe you need to educate yourself just who the Federal Reserve is and what they do. They were the very ones responsible for the first great depression. And they are responsible for this latest disaster. They are a PRIVATE BANK period! They only care about themselves. They along with the Wall Street Casino are the very ones controlling our government. This is not about politics anymore. Its about control by the global elitists.
Hey G-9 before you go praising the Federal Reserve, maybe you should actually study up on it. The Fed is what creates inflation, therefore, they caused the recession. It's time to call it quits for Bernake and cut the puppet strings the big banks pull over our government.
End The Fed. Ron Paul 2012
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Wow! This will be a big change in policy from just using trillion's of dollars of taxpayer's money to prop up crooked financial institutions where his friends had their money.
Perfect example of a BULL market. Lotsa BULL ...
Status Quo - Manipulating the currence while keeping wages flat is stealing. Period!
To the Fed: What you do is not really a product. Finance is not a product. This country should be extracting her natural resources and using those raw materials to manufacture meaningful products that people need, and that's not finance plans or PEZ dispensers.
Our natural resources are coal and coke, iron, copper, oil, etc., etc.
And another thing, the MLK statue should not have been made by Chinese workers in China, out of bricks, then brought to America and glued together with Chinese glue, and spackled with Chinese spackle.
I'm not in to defending the Fed, but these are some of the stupidest comments I've seen in a while. "The Fed causes inflation so it caused this recession"... is that a serious statement? Another gives a twisted history of how the Fed destroyed the economy since the great depression, like they were the exact same immortal people that followed the exact same lame policies...
We can criticize the Fed for what it did or didn't do leading up to the economic collapse, but it is difficult to see any other solution than what they did to prevent a full depression. There's a ton of critics on both sides, which usually means that they acted appropriately.
And they are not "creating" jobs, the are "supporting job creation"... a fair statement of whhat we would like them to do, no?
The Federal reserve is a private entity... idiot!
Marc - Care to explain what is so "stupid" about these comments? Do you honestly debate the fact that the Fed, with its manipulation of interest rates and the money supply, creates inflation? Or that the low interest rate, cheap money environment created by the Fed in the 90s and 00s had a direct role to play in artificially propping up housing values ("Like other asset prices, house prices are influenced by interest rates, and in some countries, the housing market is a key channel of monetary policy transmission." — Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, September 2005)? Or do you just not think the housing crisis had anything to do with this recession? I don't know about you, but the connections seem fairly obvious from where I am standing.
As for the Great Depression, I would direct you to the essay "Gold and Economic Freedom," which describes quite rationally how the Fed's policy of expanding the money supply led directly to the collapse of our economy (also note the similarities to the present-day activities of the Fed, and the resulting economic climate). Oh, and by the way, that essay was written by none other than Alan Greenspan, the last Chairman of the Fed, during his wiser years.
I am afraid that there is only one stupid comment here, Marc, and it is yours.
And yes, we would like the Fed to support job creation... by leaving our money alone and letting the markets work, so we can get back to having a functional, productive economy.
Complete and total BS. Who gave you, Mr. Bernanke, the "marching orders" in "supporting job creation" ? And this is HALF of the Federal Reserve's MISSION ? Your "mission" has four areas as follows:
Further, Mr. Bernanke.....you are NOT trashing the U.S. dollar, right ?
The Federal Reserve could not pass it's own STRESS TEST.
End this PRIVATE ENTITY NOW !!!
Scott -57 you made me laugh. common sense is rare anymore. the feds did lend a lot of money to a lot of banks under dubya for the real estate casino fiasco bubble. they should have constricted the money flow then. what were they thinking then i wonder? that we should keep people happy thinking their "main investment" is going to be worth 15% more next year, so that they forget about IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN? the fed reserve feels to me like a car with only a gas pedal and no brake pedal. things are bubbling: gas it, thinks are sluggish: gas it. the wrong fuel/air ratio either way.
Bernanke states he wants to help create jobs while using that as an excuse to make some more inflation.
Bernanke you are the person who should be without a job. Please resign!
I think there is a contest worth quite a bit of money that can be won by giving evidence of Ben Bernanke being right about anything related to economics in the past 5 or 6 years.
Safe to say this won't be won anytime soon.
I agree with you Alan Static he should resign.
Everyone else on the brink of ruin is hitting the road instead of admitting their folly - so I don't see why he wouldn't join them.
The United States would be better off creating a job for Bernanke that involved making licence plates.
_________________________________________________________________
"The Federal Reserve banks are one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever seen.There is not a man within the sound of my voice who does not know that this nation is run by the International bankers." -- Congressman Louis T. McFadden (Rep. Pa)
_________________________________________________________________
"A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit. Our system of creditis concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled,one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world-- no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority,but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." -- President Woodrow Wilson
His theory is lower rates will work, so even when it doesn't he just keeps doing more of the same. He & Obama are great for Wall Street though - those firms have made more in 2.5 years of Obama than they did in 8 years of Bush ...
It is not up to the FED to create jobs or be concerned with job creation. The FED is a bank, owned by foreigners, that prints money for us and sells our money to us for a profit. They are not a part of the United States Federal government. Why not just say 'good bye' to them and let Congress control our money and much of it gets printed.
Foreign banks control the FED who control us. Who's at fault? The government needs to cut that rope. And Bernanke needs to shut the crap up already.
Thank you
I don't know where people get this nonsense. The Federal Reserve is not owned by foreigners.
I beleive the FED bank has a large stake in the IMF and World Bank.
I also beleive that they printed a ton of reserve notes and pumped them into the ECB.
Also, I beleive that China baught a large amount of reserve notes.
That pretty much sums it up - so ya just a little bit owned by foreign interests. No?
We are owned by foreigners.....
We are giving America away dirt cheap, between our massive debt, and the long term sell off of our corp's.....
@ Peter17
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Hey Peter17, here is some more of what you naively refer to as "nonsense" (please wake up!);
WHO OWNS THE FEDERAL RESERVE;
Rothschild Bank of London
Warburg Bank of Hamburg
Rothschild Bank of Berlin
Lehman Brothers of New York
Lazard Brothers of Paris
Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
Goldman, Sachs of New York
Warburg Bank of Amsterdam
Chase Manhattan Bank of New York
(Reference 14, P. 13, Reference 12, P. 152)
These bankers are connected to London Banking Houses which ultimately control the FED.
When England lost the Revolutionary War with America (our forefathers were fighting
their own government), they planned to control us by controlling our banking system.
____________________________________________________________________
If you really think the "Fed" is part of our government, and NOT a private cartel of "for profit", international bankers, then you have no business posting items in public other than to embarrass yourself.
I , personally, am so glad for all of the American Citizens becoming aware of what a cancerous parasite the "Federal Reserve" is.
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.
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HOW DID THE "FED" BECOME THE CANCEROUS PARASITE ON THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THAT IT IS?
_________________________________________________________
After previous attempts to push the Federal Reserve Act through Congress, a group of
bankers funded and staffed Woodrow Wilson's campaign for President. He had committed to
sign this act. In 1913, a Senator, Nelson Aldrich, maternal grandfather to the Rockefellers,
pushed the Federal Reserve Act through Congress just before Christmas when much of Congress
was on vacation .
When elected, Wilson passed the FED.
Later, Wilson remorsefully replied (referring to the FED), "I have unwittingly ruined my
country"
another jerk from Goldman-Sachs, hire more
I read these comments and it looks like most of you think there is a magic switch that he has, that would fix everything, but has chosen not to flip it. The economy is a very complex eco system with so many variable factors, it's a wonder the wheels didn't fly off the bus a long time ago. In a nutshell, there are too many people now. That's all it is. The Titanic didn't have enough life boats. Same thing here. Too many people, not enough jobs or money for everyone on the boat. We put too many people on the boat and it's going down. The survivers will be the ones with money who get the spots on the life rafts and the poor will be locked down in their cabins while the boat sinks. It's always been that way. How many goofy Titanic responses will this one get? This should be fun.
There's too many jive turkeys
So Henry Ford and other great businesspeople are all crooks? It's the never ending raises and perks for the elected officials, big banks and pure greed that drove us into the ground. The banks created CDO's and investors ate them up so fast that the banks created even more to line their pockets with record profits and bonuses... The real reason job growth is so important is to INCREASE THE TAX BASE. Now things have gotten so bad that the FED"S are running out of INCOME. These "wars" and the bailout's have only made things worse.... and perhaps maybe the "fat-cats" will have to go without. Which won't happen. Therefore they will print more money, raise taxes, and continue their feast. I employee 6 people and actually make things for a living. We all own homes and have work for the next few months... We did this WITHOUT any help from the FEDS. Sorry G-9 but your idea that the FEDS can help us is wrong. Help yourself and your neighbors by BUYING AMERICAN.... And stop thinking that anyone in Washington cares about you unless you are feeding their political machine and conforming to their wishes. They will just piss away your money like they have been anyway...
What kind of product do you make? I make guitar strings.
cabinets and countertops.
All i want the Fed Chairman to do is keep interest rates moderate and inflation low. If he can accomplish those two things for the foreseeable future America will recover on it's own merits and be will be robust (in my opinion) after we get through sorting out what we'll be looking as a country over the next six months. That's what i think is holding us back let's get some stablization in Europe and get this deficit under control and start allowing some the tax cuts that have been proposed start going through and maybe just maybe get a corporate tax rate around 25-30% America will come back strong.
What we will get by doing the wait and see..Is socialism where one class enslaves the lower with monopoly commerce. Oh, boy! can't wait for that one! UH!
How about that pipe line that Obama had delayed again...it cost a couple of thousand jobs.
Bernanke is such a Lying Fool. I bet he is as "focused" as O-BUNGLE was with his "laser-like" focus on job creation. Unemployment holding steady at 9%. Not counting the Millions who are no longer on the unemployment rolls, because their benefits have run out. Keep Printing Ben, everybody hasn't gotten their "bailout" yet. Maybe another 10-12 TRILLION would be a start.
That's right, Fed policy helps the private sector create jobs. Too bad they chose the wrong way to support Main Street. Give money to banks to loan to Main Street. What business in their right mind would want a loan without customers to buy goods. What business would want to hire more staff to get a tax break if there are no sales to support the new people. What good is buying inventory if there is nobody to sell to. "Just in time" inventory is the game now.
Define Great Depression - Guess what, you can't. There is no comparison in today's world for what happened in '29. And even if you could, there isn't a politician alive that would even dare to use the "D" word. Why do you think its called the Great Recession. The head of the IMF has finally said the other day that we may be looking at an additional "Lost Decade". Similar to what Japan endured during the '90s.
If Bernake and his geniuses (The White House too) don't wake up and supports a meaningful housing policy, we will be looking at at least another 10 years of this crap.
I can find myself aligned with your statements.
The Banking industry and Wall Street was a necessary evil to prop up to advert a full blown tsunami of financial collapse our economy narrowly escaped. Our 401K's, our purchasing power, and our availability towards having credit was a crucial save but so was our housing sector. They ignored the cause and effect of the crisis and the infusions of QE's took place, along with stimulus short term band-aides. Can our economy hold its own without infusions by the Fed's or Congress creating more future generational debt? Our Congress from mid 2008 until late 2010 let the Federal Reserve take the lead ropes on economic policy and pursued a quest and agenda far from job creation or promoting a practical business friendly enviroment to spur jobs. We all witnessed a changing of the guards in relation to the House from a populace that was feed up with reckless spending by our corrupt elected officials during the mid November elections. Flip to now and the flip-flopping runs rampant on both sides of the fence while the economy improves at a slow pace because of forces unrelated to the crooks at D.C. The super committee is faced with harsh cuts and no one should escaped the necessary pain that needs to take place in order to improve our future fiscal responsibilities for future America. Pandering to special interests, comfy catering to selective Lobbyists and Campaign funding all will be on the transparency table if the American voter has any say left in our system of politics. The American economy for decades has been the driving force behind global stability but this stability was rocked into uncertainty by previous administrations that catered to not country but private interests in order to feed the beast of greed in one form or another. FIRE THE INCUMBENTS!
end the fed. Go to state banking system with elected bankers from the community. Don't need these massive banks controlling us. The banks need to be sued for fraud by the federal government and pay for losses suffered in home equity declines due to issuing loans without backing.
The Federal Reserve cannot create jobs.
Government services and infrastructure expenditures create jobs.
Right-wingers are still waiting for Reagan's trickle-down to kick in, so they are offering up more of the same to make it happen faster.
30 years of right-wing fiscal policy has wrecked this country. The buffoons who ranted the loudest about deficit spending are also the idiots who went on a $11 TRILLION spending spree during the last three gop administrations.
We can't expect right-wingers to be part of the solution if they can't see the problem is their failed fiscal policies.
Sure, Ben, buddy, you're focused on jobs just like Bozobama, with that laser-like quality that's worked so well for HIM. You're both sad jokes, and it's past time for both of you to go.
That's because, in actuality, this recession never did end
Try doubling that number to be more accurate
Thanks for the good laugh!
The FEDs instense focus on job creation- does this focus somehow create demand for products and services? Or should the unemployed hope the inventory of foreclosed houses will eventually be reduced enabling an increase in housing prices, new housing starts, construction jobs, and jobs created by home ownership.
Between BHO thinking about job creation before he goes to bed and immediately as he wakes up and now Bernanke adding his focus, this nations unemployment should be a thing of the past by year's end.
OOOOOPs, Barack must not have gone to bed yeaterday - he nixed the pipeline from Canada losing 20,000 jobs.
Isn't that the opposite of creating jobs??
AND HE'S BLAMING PEOPLE FOR NOT PASSING HIS "JOBS" BILL.
He shows his utter contempt for America and Americans
We, the American people, with lots of help from our elected officials in Washington, created the circumstances that led us to the brink of worldwide financial collapse. The circumstances were many and complex. The people responsible are many and come from all walks of life. Last minute interventions by governments (read TARP et. al.) and central banks kept us from plunging over the edge into worldwide depression. Institutions like the Federal Reserve and men like Ben Bernanke have kept the lifeboat afloat using the tools available to them. Much remains to be done and time is required to repair the damage. A Congress split along idealogical fault lines seems unable to frame and enact policies that could mitigate the damage and speed the healing of our nation from this economic calamity. It doesn't help that we focus our anger on the wrong institutions and the wrong people.
I guess the weed is legal in your state.
Obama just trashed 20,000 jobs by scuttling the pipe line project from northern oil wells to Texas refinerys. He is out of his mind.