In comments today Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was optimistic in his outlook for the housing market and for the overall economy. Here are some excerpts from a Reuters article on the testimony Bernanke gave before Congress today:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday the three-year U.S. housing bust may be near a bottom and the recession should end this year, as long as there is no relapse of the credit squeeze that has strangled the economy.
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“We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year,” Bernanke told the congressional Joint Economic Committee.
“An important caveat is that our forecast assumes continuing gradual repair of the financial system; a relapse in financial conditions would be a significant drag on economic activity and could cause the incipient recovery to stall.”