史上最大赤字：未來１０年將超過９兆美元
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified Monday that Congress should consider passing a new stimulus package to try to jump start the economy.Bernanke, speaking before the House Budget Committee, came just short of an outright endorsement of a package to pump tax dollars into the economy. But he clearly said the economy needs additional help from Congress.
"With the economy likely to be weak for several quarters, and with some risk of a protracted slowdown, consideration of a fiscal package by the Congress at this juncture seems appropriate," he said.
Experts said Bernanke's testimony gives an important lift to the chances that Congress will pass some sort of stimulus package, perhaps in a lame duck session after the November election and before the new Congress takes office in January.
"Effectively, the Fed chairman is giving Congress a green light to go ahead with an additional fiscal stimulus package," said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist for research firm Global Insight.
Earlier this year, Congress approved a $170 billion plan - nearly $100 billion in payments to tax filers - to boost consumer and business spending. Talk has grown louder in recent weeks in Washington and on the presidential campaign trail for further steps including an extension of unemployment benefits, infrastructure spending and other measures.
Bernanke's comments were cheered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"Chairman Bernanke added his voice to the chorus of economists, experts and policymakers who insist that America needs a job-creating recovery package to get our economy back on track and to restore consumer and investor confidence," said a statement released by her office.
The Bush administration said it was open to discussing a new stimulus package with lawmakers but said it did not see Bernanke's statements as a blanket endorsement of any plan proposed so far by Congress.
"I think we just need to wait and see," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "We're open to ideas and we'll take a look at what comes our way."
Bernanke, who with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has led the government's extraordinary efforts in recent weeks to stem the financial crisis, was asked by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., whether the economy is in a recession.
"We are in a serious slowdown," Bernanke said, refusing to give the yes-or-no answer DeLauro said she wanted.
He said "recession" is a technical description of economic conditions. "Whether it's called a recession or not is of no consequence," Bernanke said.
Some economists saw Bernanke's comments as his most dire assessment yet of the U.S. economy.
"The Fed has accepted that the rate cuts and actions, even if they are of help to the financial sector, will not be adequate to stabilize the economy," said Arpitha Bykere, economic analyst for RGE Monitor.
Most of Bernanke's nearly 90-minute appearance focused on economic stimulus. He said that Congress should consider another measure but nonetheless declined to say how much money should be spent. He said that's a decision for Congress, not the Federal Reserve.
Bernanke suggested Monday that any stimulus program should be activated as quickly as possible to boost the economy when it is facing its greatest period of weakness.
In addition, Congress should weigh whether to make credit more available to consumers, homeowners, businesses and other borrowers, Bernanke said. He said that loan guarantees and direct lending by government are among the ways lawmakers can get credit flowing again.
Democrats have been pushing for a second stimulus package for months. Among the proposals they've put forward: extend jobless benefits, increase food stamps, invest in infrastructure projects and impose a requirement for a foreclosure moratorium.
Republicans have made their own proposals, which focus more on tax breaks than direct payments. Among them, reduce or suspend the capital gains tax and offer a bigger tax break for home buyers.
The presidential candidates, whose crisis-related stimulus plans largely differ from one another, nevertheless both call for suspending the income tax on unemployment benefits and temporarily exempting seniors over 70-1/2 from having to make withdrawals from their IRAs and 401(k)s.
At Monday's hearing, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash, pushed Bernanke about the value of spending on infrastructure projects, such as roads and water projects. Such projects have economic value, but it generally takes a long time for spending on such projects to get into the system, Bernanke said. Baird responded that in his district and across the country there are many projects ready to go and lacking only funding.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Germany on Sunday guaranteed all private bank accounts and negotiated a 50 billion euros ($69 billion) bailout deal for Hypo Real Estate AG as Europe's second largest economy sought to ward off financial crisis.The Finance Ministry and private banks reached a deal late Sunday to infuse an additional line of credit worth up to 15 billion euros ($21 billion) into the embattled real estate giant, expanding on an earlier 35 billion euro ($48 billion) bailout plan that would have found the government and private banks splitting the bill.
The earlier deal fell apart Saturday when Hypo announced that a consortium of unnamed financial institutions had backed out. That prompted banking executives and lawmakers to convene in the capital for feverish talks toward the new deal they unveiled late Sunday.
The new package includes the original 35 billion euros ($48.4 billion) plan with the government paying up to 27 billion euros ($37 billion) of that sum and banks funding the remainder as a line of credit.
New is an additional 15 billion euro ($21 billion) line of insured credit from the banks.
The ministry said in a statement that the new deal would "strengthen the financial community of Germany in difficult times."
Earlier Sunday, Germany joined Ireland and Greece in taking drastic independent measures to protect its private citizens by guaranteeing all private bank and savings accounts as well as time deposits, or CDs.
Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig said the unlimited guarantee covered some 568 billion euros ($785 billion) in investments.
Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed that she would not let the failure of any company disrupt the German economy.
"We will not allow the distress of one financial institution to distress the entire system," she told reporters.
Merkel said the plan would ensure that anyone who made reckless market decisions would be made to answer for their actions.
Hypo was the first German blue chip to seek a government rescue. It rant into trouble in mid-September as credit froze on international markets after its Dublin-based unit, Depfa Bank PLC, failed to attract needed short-term funding amid the widening credit crunch.
A spokesman for Ireland's department of finance said the government would not help Germany bail out Hypo or its subsidiary.
Sunday's emergency meeting came a day after Europe's four major economic powers called for tighter regulation in a bid to stop the fiscal bleeding wrought by turmoil on Wall Street -- though Germany, France, Britain and Italy shied away from advocating a massive bailout akin to that in the United States, where Congress approved a $700 billion plan last week.
European governments have pumped billions of euros into banks to keep them afloat over the last week, trying to assure savers their money was safe and avert a panic that has frozen lending across the world.
(CNN) -- Asian and Pacific stock markets sank in early trade on Tuesday after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to adopt a financial bailout plan, which triggered the largest point drop in U.S. market history.Many of the markets expanded their losses toward the end of the trading day.
The Korea Exchange in Seoul, South Korea, was down 0.72 percent, after being off more than three percent earlier.
Japan's Nikkei Index was down 3.6 percent.
The Bank of Japan on Tuesday morning pumped another 2 trillion yen ($19.23 billion) into money markets, amid an effort among the world's central banks to calm worries about a global financial crisis, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives are set to vote shortly on the biggest proposed government intervention in the U.S. economy since the Great Depression after government officials, Treasury chiefs and political leaders agreed details of a $700 billion rescue plan to prop up the nation's ailing financial system.
Central banks around the world are pumping billions of dollars into money markets in a coordinated bid to calm global financial upheaval. The $247 billion package to fuel economic activity helped cheer markets with the Europe's FTSE 100, DAX 30 and CAC 40 all entering positive territory and Wall Street rising on early trading.
Stocks in Asia and Europe continued to tumble Tuesday following Wall Street's worst day since markets reopened seven years ago after the 9/11 terror attacks. Tokyo's Nikkei fell 4.95 percent while the Hong Kong Hang Seng shed 5.9 percent as the effects of Lehman Brothers' collapse reverberated around the world.
Global markets were reeling Monday after a convulsive day on Wall Street that saw leading U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy and others scramble for merger as the continued fallout from the credit crunch claimed new victims.
