Recession Will End This Year?

March 18, 2009

Fed Chairman Bernanke tells 60 Minutes YES!

In a rare television interview, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said “we’ll see the recession coming to an end probably this year, ” the country will begin to recover in 2010, he said, “and it will pick up steam over time.”

Speaking Sunday March 15 on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Bernanke said that the economy’s problems should begin to stabilize this year but he added that recovery is dependent on support from lawmakers and the public. Bernanke told CBS Correspondent Scott Pelly that he is confident in the long-term outlook for the U.S. economy, he feels strongly that bailouts of financial firms are essential to protect ordinary Americans, and voiced his outrage at the actions of financiers who got the nation into its current mess.

Bernanke was interviewed in his hometown of Dillon, South Carolina, and he stressed that he never worked on Wall Street.  He came from Dillon, a small town where his father owned a drugstore on Main Street. "I come from Main Street, that’s my background. And I care about Wall Street for one reason and one reason only, because what happens on Wall Street matters to Main Street. And if we don’t have stabilization in the financial markets, if we don't take the steps necessary to make sure that credit is flowing again, then my father couldn't get a loan to build his new store,” said Bernanke.

Watch the video  http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml