On 5/2/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> CNBC report seen denting Bernanke's credibility
>
> By Tim Ahmann and Mark Felsenthal
>
> 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
>
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fledgling Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
> Bernanke may have a hard time recouping his credibility after
> off-the-cuff remarks over the weekend made it onto the airwaves on
> Monday, roiling financial markets.
>
> CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo waited until late afternoon Monday to
> report that Bernanke had told her at a journalists' dinner on
> Saturday that traders had misread his congressional testimony last
> week.
>
> "Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke told me over the weekend that the
> media and the markets basically got it wrong last week in speculating
> that the Fed is done raising interest rates," she said moments before
> a live interview with Chicago Fed President Michael Moskow.
>
> "Bernanke also told me it is worrisome to him that anyone would think
> of him as dovish, though that feeling did permeate last week," she
> added.
>
> As Bartiromo, speaking from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, turned
> to interview Moskow, the pit exploded into activity, with traders
> screaming orders in the background.
>
> Her report knocked down prices for U.S. stocks and government bonds,
> while driving the dollar higher as traders saw them as suggesting
> more interest-rates rises ahead than they had expected after the
> testimony.
-- Jim Devine / "Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." -- John Kenneth Galbraith.