Ben S

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has been praised by President Obama and hailed by most mainstream economists for bold policies that played a critical role in pulling the U.S. economy back from the brink of disaster. The Fed chief even won a celebrity accolade Wednesday when Time magazine named him Person of the Year. But instead of basking in glory, the 56-year-old professorial Fed chairman is fighting for his job -- and for the survival of policies at the heart of efforts by the central bank and the Obama administration to keep the nation's fragile recovery on track.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged President Obama and Congress to shield the fragile economy from the full brunt of the so-called fiscal cliff or risk another recession just as the recovery is taking hold. Speaking Tuesday at the New York Economic Club, Bernanke warned that the Fed doesn't have the tools left to offset the one-two punch of significantly higher taxes and sharply reduced government spending set to begin in January. "Coming together to find fiscal solutions will not be easy, but the stakes are high," Bernanke said.

Despite last week's surprisingly positive report on jobs, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke remains cautious about the economic recovery and suggested Monday that he would push to keep interest rates near zero for an "extended period." In a speech at the Economic Club of Washington, Bernanke said the job market remained weak, and he maintained a sobering outlook for unemployment in the foreseeable future -- even after Friday's upbeat employment report. That data showed the jobless rate dropping slightly to 10% from 10.2% in October and employers shedding 11,000 jobs last month, far less than what economists had projected.

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is poised to roll out another stimulus program — and risk the wrath of conservative critics. Bernanke and his central bank colleagues gather Wednesday for a pivotal two-day session fresh off last week's disappointing jobs report, the latest in a string of signs that the economic recovery is faltering. And with Europe, China and other nations taking steps to bolster their struggling economies in the face of a global slowdown, Washington and Wall Street expect the Fed to unveil plans for a third round of its controversial bond-buying program when the meeting ends Thursday.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's confirmation to a second four-year term, seemingly a slam dunk just a few weeks ago, now has become a true battle royal. Although Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Max Baucus of Montana voiced support for Bernanke on Monday, a Wall Street Journal tally showed that the Fed chief still was 20 votes shy of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster that could block his confirmation. A total of 43 senators have said they are undecided or haven't officially commented.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, apparently seeking to mollify critics as he awaits Senate confirmation on his reappointment, said Tuesday that he welcomed a government audit of the central bank's role in the intensely unpopular bailout of American International Group Inc. In a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, Bernanke offered to "make available to the GAO all records and personnel...

A Senate panel endorsed Ben S. Bernanke on Thursday for another term as Federal Reserve chairman, clearing the way for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor early next year. The Senate Banking Committee voted 16 to 7 to send to the full Senate Bernanke's nomination for a second four-year term when his current one ends Jan. 31. Although he appears likely to be confirmed, there could be more than a few "no" votes from members of both parties who are dissatisfied with the state of the economy and Bernanke's stewardship of the Fed. Only four of 10 Republicans voted in favor of Bernanke, who is a Republican first appointed by President Bush.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, whose reconfirmation has become surprisingly jeopardized, received a bipartisan boost Saturday from two key senators who reiterated their support for him and predicted he would win a second four-year term. Senate banking committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who also serves on the committee, took the unusual step of issuing a weekend statement on Bernanke's behalf. The move came a day after two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer of California and Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, announced their opposition to Bernanke's renomination as head of the central bank, fueling speculation that his confirmation could be scuttled.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Thursday defended the central bank's record and argued for preserving its regulatory powers, but lawmakers in both parties were unmoved as they lobbed sharp criticisms at him and the Fed for lapses that contributed to the financial crisis. Bernanke is widely expected to win a second term as chairman, but the confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee provided new evidence of the intense resentment in Congress over what is seen as the Fed's failure to tighten credit and curb financial risk-taking in time to avert the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

The Senate, putting market stability ahead of populist anger at Wall Street, voted Thursday to give Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke a second four-year term as head of the nation's central bank. The 70-30 vote was a hard-won victory for President Obama, who had lobbied senators who threatened to block the confirmation of a Bush-era holdover whom they considered an emblem of failed economic policy. The bipartisan vote came three days before the expiration of Bernanke's first term.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke offered a bleak assessment of the economy, stirring more speculation that the central bank would spring into action to boost the flagging recovery. But the Fed chief gave no hint that any move was imminent. And several analysts concluded after his testimony to lawmakers Tuesday that the Fed was now likely to sit tight this summer, waiting until at least its mid-September meeting before undertaking new efforts to spur growth.

WASHINGTON - A House committee is launching a bipartisan investigation into allegations that large banks rigged a key interest rate, and will start by questioning Federal Reserve ChairmanBen S. Bernanke and Treasury SecretaryTimothy F. Geithner at upcoming hearings. At the same time, officials at the country's largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, said Monday they were examining the effect of the rate-fixing scandal and might seek damages if they could be calculated.

Anna Schwartz, an economist and coauthor with Milton Friedman of a book on monetary policy that shaped the views of central bankers including Federal Reserve ChairmanBen S. Bernanke, has died. She was 96. Schwartz died Thursday at her home in Manhattan after a long illness, said her daughter Naomi Pasachoff. The first book that Schwartz wrote with Friedman, "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960," had "critical influence" on the outlook "of a generation of policymakers," Bernanke said in 2003, when he was a Fed governor.

U.S. consumers and the economy started the year with more financial pep than previously thought, but Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke cautioned that economic growth probably would be modest through the rest of this year. The nation's recovery from the brutal recession has been "uneven and modest," the Fed chief told Congress on Wednesday, and is being hampered by tight credit for borrowers, a depressed housing market, budget-strapped governments and uncertainties in resolving the European sovereign debt crisis.

Even as Federal Reserve Chairman  Ben S. Bernanke described the recovery as "frustratingly slow," Republican lawmakers lit into the central bank chief's latest efforts to boost the economy. In testifying before the House Budget Committee, Bernanke said Thursday that the economy had been improving recently - with consumer spending, manufacturing and job growth up in recent months. But he repeated his cautious outlook for the economy, mentioning uncertainties about Europe, the still-depressed U.S. housing market and the ability of consumers to keep spending in the face of stagnant incomes, tight credit and weak confidence.

Even if the White House and congressional leaders reach a deal to raise the debt limit, they face at least two hurdles to persuading rank-and-file Republicans to go along. Some cling to a disturbing belief that the Treasury Department doesn't need to borrow more money to keep America's creditors happy. And many more insist that the deal must include a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget. The former notion is irrational. And the latter is bad policy, even if it reflects a legitimate concern about the financial burden on future generations.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be heavily favored to win Senate confirmation for a second term, but he faces a far tougher challenge in trying to beat back efforts by angry lawmakers to curb the Fed's independence as an arbiter of economic policy. The anger, which is likely to boil up today at Bernanke's confirmation hearing, arises from the Fed's widely acknowledged failure to curb the excessive risk-taking and other financial behavior that helped precipitate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Long one of the most secretive and inscrutable government institutions, the Federal Reserve for the first time will allow its chairman to meet regularly with reporters to explain the central bank's actions. The decision to have Chairman Ben S. Bernanke hold quarterly news briefings comes as the Fed tries to become more open in the face of intense criticism of the unprecedented steps it took during the financial crisis to help large banks and Wall Street firms. "It was pretty clear that the Fed needed to do something to be seen as more open," said Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed official and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said a sustained rise in prices for oil and other commodities would threaten the economic recovery, but that even with the turmoil in the Middle East he did not expect higher prices would create inflation problems in the United States. "The most likely outcome is that the recent rise in commodity prices will lead to, at most, a temporary and relatively modest increase in U.S. consumer price inflation," Bernanke said in testimony Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee.