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Showing posts from April 7, 2008

When Bernanke utters the 'R' word

Business Times - 08 Apr 2008 When Bernanke utters the 'R' word 'A recession is possible,' he told the somewhat hostile members of the Senate Joint Economic Committee last week By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT YES. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke actually used the word 'recession' during his Congressional testimony last week. He didn't say that the US economy was in a recession or that it was about to enter into a recession. But he did tell the somewhat hostile members of the Senate Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday that 'a recession is possible', adding that the economy was apparently 'slightly growing at the moment but we think that there's a chance that for the first half as a whole, there might be a slight contraction'. And Mr Bernanke sounded a bit more explicit on the issue - without using the word 'recession' itself - when he told the senators that 'it now appears likely that real gross domestic produc