Bernanke Damps Stimulus Prospects Amid Republican Criticism
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tempered expectations the Fed will resume buying bonds as criticism from Republican senators highlighted the potential backlash to additional monetary stimulus.
“We’re not proposing anything today,” Bernanke said to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday in Washington. “We just want to make sure that we have the options when they become necessary. But at this point, we’re not proposing to undertake that option,” he said, referring to a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3.