STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 5 March 2014

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26. Bernanke Harbors Regret on Main Street’s View of Bailout

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/bernanke-says-u-s-economy-seeing-progress.html

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank should have explained more effectively that bailouts during the financial crisis were aimed at helping people outside the finance industry.

“My natural inclinations, even if it weren’t for the legal mandate, would be to try to help the average person,” Bernanke said today in his first public remarks since leaving the Fed in January, referring to the central bank’s mandate from Congress to ensure full employment and stable prices. “The complexity though arises because in order to help the average person, you have to do things -- very distasteful things -- like try to prevent some large financial companies from collapsing.”

Bernanke guided the economy through the financial crisis that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the longest recession since the Great Depression -- events that he characterized in a speech today in Abu Dhabi as “very, very dark hours.” He responded with some $3.3 trillion in emergency lending to financial institutions, including aiding the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc.