Bernanke on 60 Minutes

On 60 Minutes, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the Fed’s activism in buying more Treasury bonds, but he wasn’t compelling. The issue is that the Fed is expanding to over $3 trillion in assets, a step it should only consider if there were a dire threat to the financial system that buying more bonds, so-called quantitative easing, would fix. Bernanke didn’t claim an emergency. He said a double dip was unlikely because many parts of the economy are still operating at a low level.