MSNBC: In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said the economy is likely to keep shrinking in the first six months of this year. Housing, credit and financial crises — the worst since the 1930s — plunged the economy into its worst slide in a quarter-century at the end of last year.Don't call it nationalization, which is a scary word with Swedish connotations (heaven forbid) and all the myths wrapped up in that, call it a private/public partnership, says Bernanke. Perhaps, in his speech tonight, Obama should give a tutorial on what nationalization is and is not. There are too many hard right people muddying things up with their small talk. It doesn't matter what you call it. If the banks aren't lending we lose.
Bernanke hoped that the current recession will end this year, but said there were significant risks to that forecast. Any economic turnaround will hinge on the success of the Fed and the Obama administration in getting credit and financial markets to operate more normally again.
Bernanke's opening statement:
