Ben Bernanke: “The economy needed help from Congress, if not from additional spending on roads and bridges, for example, then at least…”

Let me just say that we are quite aware of these portfolios, and we are addressing them in at least two ways.

Lower paid workers, as well as women and minorities, are over-represented in the most affected sectors, and, thus, have borne a disproportionate share of the job and income losses.

Right now our concern is that the Chinese currency policy is blocking what might be a more normal recovery process in the global economy, and it is to an extent hurting our recovery.

monetary policy is not a panacea, so there is still plenty of room for Congress to address some of these problems