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Cmte Financial Services (R)
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Bernanke Forced to Defend Fed's 'Easy-Money' Monetary Policy


Washington, Mar 1 -

"I believe… the economic challenges of our nation are fiscal in nature, not monetary. They cannot be solved by the Fed."
– Chairman Jeb Hensarling

"There seems to be…a lot of evidence out there that the benefits of the low interest rate and quantitative easing are accruing primarily to the federal government, foreign governments and large banks.”
– Monetary Policy & Trade Subcommittee Chairman John Campbell

The Financial Services Committee hosted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for his semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress on Wednesday. Republicans repeatedly questioned the wisdom of the Fed’s controversial accommodative monetary policy, noting it enables reckless Washington spending and has failed to generate true economic growth, but could potentially result in long-term harm to the economy.

Earlier in the week, the Committee debated and approved its views and estimates of the budget, which the President once again failed to produce on time. Democrats on the committee complained about the presence of the national debt clock at the committee markup (which was noted by the Daily Caller, the Drudge Report and others). “Washington’s spending-driven debt crisis and burdensome regulatory policies” – including the Dodd-Frank Act and its 400 regulations – “have produced an economy that seems stuck perpetually in neutral,” the committee noted in its official report (.pdf).

Check out the Hearing Highlights below.