fed chairman ben bernanke and other policy makers said they will keep their key interest rate near zero until the unemployment rate falls below 6.5% or inflation rises to 2.5%. now, this is the first time the fed has set a clear economic target for how long interest rates will stay at record lows. the surprise decision means the central bank will continue stimulating the economy by buying bonds. darren gersh explains the dramatic move. >> reporter: ben bernanke and his colleagues will no longer mark a date on the calendar for when they expect to begin raising interest rates. from now on, they'll make that call based on a target for the unemployment rate and inflation. >> it'll act to some extent as an automatic stabilizer. so if the outlook worsens and that leads markets to think that the increase in rates is further out in the future, that will tend to lower longer term rates, and that will tend to be supportive of the economy. so that has an automatic stabilizer-type effect. it offsets adverse shocks. >> reporter: as it turns out, the fed expects the unemployment rate to fall below 6.

darren gersh explains the dramatic move. >> reporter: ben bernanke and his colleagues will no longer mark a date on the calendar for when they expect to begin raising interest rates. from now on, they'll make that call based on a target for the unemployment rate and inflation. >> it'll act to some extent as an automatic stabilizer. so if the outlook worsens and that leads markets to think that the increase in rates is further out in the future, that will tend to lower longer term rates, and that will tend to be supportive of the economy. so that has an automatic stabilizer-type effect. it offsets adverse shocks. >> reporter: as it turns out, the fed expects the unemployment rate to fall below 6.5% until 2015, exactly when the fed said a few months ago it expected to begin raising interest rates. so this isn't much of a change in policy. bernanke also said the central bank will continue buying bonds, $85 billion a month, to help bring down interest rates and boost growth. and the fed plans to keep doing that until the labor market shows a solid pickup or there are other signs of troub

we are minutes away from fed chairman's ben bernanke's news conference. there is a specific employment rate along with inflation target, there is a lot to talk about. let us bring in steve with more and the fed's outlook, steve? >> i think the story here today is federal reserve despite saying it will spend something like a trillion dollars in additional qe this year or next year is lowering its economic forecast. if you look at the outlook for 2012 through 2015, it actually lowered the outlook from its september forecast. take a look here. tenth off of 2012. tenth off of 13. 15 bases points out of 2014 and 2015. look at what the federal reserve did with unemployment rate.

if we look at -- you know ben bernanke. this is it. the last scheduled meeting unless there is an emergency. what do you say? >> there are a couple things to watch here. this is all about getting housing going again. this is why they are buying mortgage bonds. they talked about it in several statements. the economy -- you are starting to see a cat that housing recovery. we are going into the slow season, winter is usually the slow season for housing. if they do more than expected will be in mortgage bonds. dennis: which would you rather have the fed buy more of? mortgage-backed securities for u.s. treasurys? >> for much there same reason constance said, mortgage-backed securities. treasury rates are low and housing is where you get the multiplier effect in this economy. if you get more housing sales whether it is new or existing homes you will see more transportation of raw materials. >> the fed watches a new round of bond buying. a new bond buying program, a new round of quantitative easing as expected. $45 billion a month in treasury

>> ben bernanke address that in his report. none of these numeric thresholds are an absolute trigger. he said if we get below 6.5% but inflation is still low, they may think raising rates could still be inappropriate for he was very clear the fed still have a lot of wiggle room but at least you don't have to worry about raising interest rates until we get those markers. liz: what was your second biggest surprise? >> the shift in the threshold was a little bit of a surprise. is that what you're referring to? it is a little bit of inside baseball, if you will. they did kind of shorts and a maturity of the treacheries they are buying. only marginally, but it spooked the long end of the market. liz: it did. >> they have been buying a lot of support out for 30-year maturities, just about the only buyers of that sector anymore and the fact the fed will be buying only a small amount less. to some extent unsettled the market, so that's a very long end of the market we saw a little upward pressure on yields. it is mostly 30s. for most o

. >> fed chief ben bernanke, he should have quit at hello. the market lost all of their games plus a point. 6.5%, that is the point say unemployment rate at which ben bernanke says any future rate moves will now be tied. a news conference in washington, he emphasized his top priority now shoring up the job market. the decision to live up the printing presses in january. the fed investors said they will not stop buying bonds until they drop. 85 alien dollars and we created money each and every month, 45 billion of that put in longer dated treasuries. by mortgage-backed securities. dow jones industrials really straddling the flat line. up more than 81 points after the announcement of markets like this announcement and started to take a second look. the nasdaq has been down most of the day. investors gave the plan a thumbs-up and saw stocks at their best levels since october but giving up the games as you see, what went on. big intraday swings around 12:30 p.m. eastern when the fed made the decisions known. take a look at the financials, giving

that's ben bernanke and toy story. very famous role for ben bernanke. the minute they heard, we will keep going and going and going, the stock market froze. we are now up, mandy, six days in a row. seven-week highs. expansion of new highs at the new york stock exchange. predictably, dollar concerns. inflationary concerns. dollar weakness. there's the dollar index moving to the down side. that helps commodity, copper moving up. material stocks one of the big movers on this announcement. you see the material index moving up. and s&p index is at 52-week high. there it is, 329. i want to note that bond market is freaking out a little bit because of obvious inflationary implications of what the federal reserve is doing. there's your battle. inflation hawks. >> i want to throw a question at you. and it something that steve said a moment ago. that means we are getting less bang for qe buck. will the same go for what kind of impact it will have on the stock market as well? >> i think studies indicate we have less bang as qe programs are announced. bottom line t

what would you like to ask the ben bernanke? melissa: with the tenure and the 30 year as we head to break. you can see the yield rising on a ten year by 3 basis points. we will be right back. to work h. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ >> i am adam shapiro. stocks are getting a boost after the federal reserve announced plans to ramp up stimulus to the u.s. economy. the dow was up 70 points. avon is cutting 1500 jobs from its global work force. the company will also leave south corey and vietnam. the moves are part of a turnaround plan as it is working to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in costs over the next few years. honda is going to recall 800,000 minivans and suvs nationwide because th

you may want to go and check that out now tomorrow of course is the f o m c minute meetings results ben bernanke has a presser jim rickards author of currency wars will be here with his insights he's always amazing on the fed you can watch us and h.d. on hulu there's the address right there and from every here at capital account thank you so much for watching and have a great night. you see. destruction with and see. what could be just really. saying a great sacrifice. and. understood by drugs which.

ben bernanke, wow, i think he spooked the markets today. he said something that erased the entire rally. but did people really hear him right? that's up next. we're going to try to figure out bernanke. i was worried the health care system spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. and tools to estimate what my care may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. >>> welcome back to "the kudlow report." in this half hour, look at these violent scenes from michigan. the right to work battle was far from peaceful

and ben bernanke said household confidence is starting to wane. businesses aren't spending money because of the fiscal cliff. so it's so elusive. it's almost right there. next year could be a good year if we can get some of these uncertainties settled. >> thank you so much, christine. appreciate it. >>> 26 minutes past the hour. >>> without it, a lot of iphone users were lost without it. literally. the app that just made a big comeback. switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. he opened up jake's very private world. at first, jake's family thought they saved ziggy, but his connection with jake has been a lifesaver. f

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney who's now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher is they seem to be fe

thank you, susan. >>> ben bernanke also had big news for investors. the feds taking unprecedented action in keeping interest rates at their record-low levels. erica ferrari is here in new york with that. erica, good morning to you. >> good morning, terrell. for the first time ever, the fed said they would link its actions to specific economic milestones. they said they'll keep the interest rate to 0% until the unemployment rate falls to below 6.5%. the jobless rate may not reach that point until 2015. it's at 7.7% now. rates will also stay low as long as inflation remains below 2.5%. the fed will continue its program of spending $85 billion a month on bond purchases. all of these steps are aimed at spurring borrowing and lending. and news from the federallied most asian markets. tokyo's nikkei added 1.5%. hong kong's hang seng lost a quarter percent. the dow lost nearly 3 points. the nasdaq was down 8. and the u.s. is on track to run up its fifth straight deficit or manufacture than a trillion dollars. the treasury department says the budget gap rose

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney who's now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher they seem to be few a

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney who's now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against the legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher is they seem to be few

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to you look at mark carney who's now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard pressures they seem to be few a

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney is now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly engaged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher as they seem to be few and

ben bernanke said the lack much progress is already causing problems for the u.s. economy. >>> governor jerry brown will continue to work a full schedule while he has prostate cancer. he is being treated and when he meat with them in san jose... >> one would never have known there are health issues going on in that 74-year-old body and we actually enjoy the conversation. >> brown will be treated with radio therapy and the prognosis is excellent and the treatment will be completed januarypth you -- january 7th. we also have the full statement released by his office, just look for the hot topic section. >> let's go to sal because something is happening on the bay bridge the san mateo bridge, the traffic so far has not been too too adversely affected -- too adversely affected. we also have more light coming into san francisco from oakland. looking at the west bay, no problems problems as you go to 880. >>> what we have is a cold air mass. a cool and breezy day today. and some of that fog in the north bay could be awful. we will keep an eye on things. i know novato has

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the to the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney is now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly if not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against the legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher as they seem to be so you wo

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney who's now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher as they seem to be fe

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney was now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly engaged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against the legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher as they seem to be few and

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney is now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher as they seem to be seali

ben bernanke has become the jobs commander in chief. we've heard nothing but carping on air in the blog sphere as you the fed's latest actions today. i ska give me a break. bernanke said my legacy will be that i helped people get a job. and i care more about the unemployed than i do about taxing or not taxing the wealthiest 2%. further, bernanke's implied with this action to keep buying bonds. buy buy buy buy buy buy! to force interest rates to stay low until we get to a 6.5% unemployment? well, he's saying he's very worried about our country going over the fiscal cliff. and he's extremely anxious about how that new found mandated austerity will mean huge job losses. yeah. lots and lots of people not being able to pay for dinner. our network calculates that while there'll be some powerful initial debt reductions from the reduced spending and much higher taxes, going over this cliff women cost this country 2 million jobs. do you ever hear that during the day? 2 million jobs. a lot of jobs. which is why we believe congress and the preside

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney is now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard pressures they seem to be few a

. >> someone in dc is focussed on job, fed chairman ben bernanke pledging more easy money to cut the unemployment rate. what does the economy look like in the new year, wells fargo chief economist, john silvio next. lou: chairman ben bernanke made a historic move sitting unemployment rate as a target for monetary policy. we'll be taking that up, talking with wells fargo chief economist john silv sylvia in moments, and announcing they will spend -- a month buying mortgage-backed security. what the market expected and stocks rallied a bit on the announcement, a little. then ben bernanke talked about the fiscal cliff that ended that rally, stocks coming off their highs, index, swung 102 points over second, and s&p finished where it began, nascar -- nazdaq down over 8 points, and trading on big board, busiest in the week, walmart a big mover, dropping retailer part of an overall weak group, best answer, profit taking with the sell-off walmart up, 18 -- almost 19ers in on the year, 10 year, yield rising to 1.69%, and crude market, up, joining me now, wells fargo chief economist, john silv

when you look at what ben when you look at what ben bernanke did today you've got to marvel. the republicans themselves refuse to get specific on spending until they see something from the white house. the elected portion of our government is not helping this economy at all. their failure to rise above politics to reach a compromise is now really starting to hurt the u.s. economy. in this vacuum, the fed has decided to keep rates low. they stepped in saying listen, business, we are not going to get in your way. we're not going to allow interest rates to go higher until we get many hundreds of thousands of people hired! [ applause ] ben bernanke has become the jobs commander in chief. while i've heard nothing but carping on air in the blogosphere as you the fed's latest actions today. i say give me a break. bernanke said my legacy will be that i helped people get a job. and i care more about the unemployed than i do about taxing or not taxing the wealthiest 2%. further, bernanke's implied with this action to keep buying bonds. buy buy buy buy buy buy! to force interest rates t

it's going to be very difficult for ben bernanke or whoever is the fed chairman if it's a problem. it's not a problem right now. twelve months from now or 18 months from you you get a recovery going with the kind of deficit that we have outstanding and with the kind of liquidity that's sitting in the banking system, i want to see a fed chairman then raise interest rates. and i'm not talking about, yeah, we'll go from 1.6 on a long-term bond to 2.1. how about from 1.6 to 4. because you're not going to get anybody's attention in any other way. and that is really, it's a political problem. this is not an economic problem. this is a political problem. and the two issues -- monetary policy and fiscal policy -- can't be separated. tsa what he told -- that's what he told senator hines. >> shall we put silber in office? [laughter] [applause] >> well, there you go. why do you think i wrote this book? [laughter] >> so it's a start of his political campaign. it's the start of his political campaign. [laughter] >> he hasn't told me about that before. >> he has an agenda. >> are you ready, are

what does the economy look like in the new year, wells fargo chief lou: chairman ben bernanke made a historic move sitting unemployment rate as a target for monetary policy. we'll be taking that up, talking with wells fargo chief economist john silv sylvia in moments, and announcing they will spend -- a month buying mortgage-backed security. what the market expected and stocks rallied a bit on the announcement, a little. then ben bernanke talked about the fiscal cliff that ended that rally, stocks coming off their highs, index, swung 102 points over second, and s&p finished where it began, nascar -- nazdaq down over 8 points, and trading on big board, busiest in the week, walmart a big mover, dropping retailer part of an overall weak group, best answer, profit taking with the sell-off walmart up, 18 -- almost 19ers in on the year, 10 year, yield rising to 1.69%, and crude market, up, joining me now, wells fargo chief economist, john silviia, 6.5% is target for fed chairman and the fed, that is the unemployment rate they want to hit, i have never heard of the fed doing this before. ha

ben bernanke will kind of be our special guest. i hear that randolph and mortimer duke are buyers, not sellers. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated

boy, i would think the fed and ben bernanke are rooting hard for that one. we saw how the market is moving on every single development out of washington, with stocks quickly coming off of their session lows today, just on the report that the two main players would finally get in the same room, look at each other eye to eye and talk this out. even with the fed's latest contortions yesterday, it freely admits it does not have the tools that will combat the affects of a fiscal cliff debacle. ben bernanke and his fed cohorts have done the job that congress should have been doing all along. if he had his way, it would not have been the fed doing so much to help this economy. it would have been our elected officials. the job that they're paid to do. he stepped in because he had to, not because he wanted to. now, the message is clear. the fed cannot fix washington's ineptitude this time, if they can't come to a compromise and make a deal. so, you sure can be sure

today is the day after ben bernanke unveiled big new money printing program. it is also his 59th birthday, no impact on the market obviously. yum! brands up slightly today. this is the company behind taco bell and kfc. goldman sachs upgrading the stock, says its recent problems in china, only temporary. at this price $68 a share. 68 they say heading higher. goldman is downgrading darden restaurants. t it says -- it says the turnaround at olive guaarden is slow. it is down. boston beer makes sam adams beer, it expects to make more money next year, simple reason it is selling more beer. the stock hit all-time high today. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. stuart: the federal reserve is going to start tying interest rates to

the trouble is when you got a financial panic that is ben bernanke -- this is in david wessel's book and i believe it, we were about to go into a depression. they are going to bail out everybody and so at that point failure falls back to the taxpayer and inefficiency in the financial system rather than a few companies. .. the firms others that grew by acquiring other firms end up with an undigestible pass to build on the high use of knowledge. like diamond, you slap your organization to a common information platform so at least you can see empires what kind of positions you taking. >> you have the problem of the -- [inaudible] platform. to say all the information being shaped by some understanding and what the problem is. and that's where as you nicely say in the book, you have the problem on cognitive herding. cognitive herding by firms, by government, by central bank, by anybody so we think about the problem in the same way, in the same category and that's a really hard problem to diversify. that's a nice -- problem. >> i think we had a question here. get to the gentleman here. >>

it's ben bernanke's birthday. happy birthday, ben. "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning and welcome back to south carolina here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with joe kernen. becky is off today. dino kosof, he's going to have a lot to talk about when it comes to what mr. bernanke just said. later in the program, we'll talk to pimco's kneneal ashkari. >>> a surprise from ben bernanke, linking unemployment to monetary policy. rates will be staying where they are right now, which is close to zero, of course. until at the very least the jobless rate falls to 6.5%. we can only cross our fingers wherefore when that might be. ben bernanke says these changes will make the central bank more transparent adding they can only help the markets. the central bank ramped up its asset purchase program adding $40 billion to its $40 billion a month purchases of mortgage-backed bonds. he spoke about the objectives during wednesday's news conference. >> the asset purchases and the rate increases have different objectives. the asset purc

ben bernanke, chairman of the federal reserve. who, because he surrounded us with free money and his low interest rate policy triggered a stock market rally all year long, an economy that while moving slowly certainly showed growth throughout the year. bernanke's policies encouraged lending, it encouraged borrowing, and also told us that there are few alternatives with any returns for our money beyond stocks and housing. for all of that, ben bernanke is my pick for businessperson of the year 2012. that will do it for us for today. thank you of so much for joining me. next week bewe will coming to you with a brand new look and a brand new name. look for "on the money with maria bartiromo." i'll continue to be here with you as are all of our great guests every week where wall street meets main street. happy new year, everybody, wish you the best for 2013. i'll see you next weekend.

i think that's a mistake. >> steve, ben bernanke said today if we do go over the fiscal cliff, even if it's for a short period of time, it's going to be very costly and they do not have the tools to basically dig us out of it. do you believe if we go over the fiscal cliff it won't be as easy as the governor is suggesting? >> we're in trouble anyway this quarter and the next quarter and putting on taxes of any kind would be the wrong thing to do. sometimes the governor is a former physician, current physician, and you learn first go don't harm the patient. putting on taxes would harm the patient. we've seen that around the world. >> what do we do with the deficit problem we have? >> the only way to get rid of a deficit ultimately, spending restraint. you've got to do entitlement reform. that will take months, not a few weeks, but it's grow the economy. if we had revenues equal to what we normally do, 18%, 19% of gdp, that cuts the deficit in half. there's no way you can tax and cut spend out of this contraction. the last time we tried that was the early 1930s. did not work. >> let me di

bernanke has made tremendous progress this way. but it is it goes a bit against the legacy culture within within the fed and every organization has its culture and its means of communicating there is a formality to the the the fed culture the fed style it is a bit self serious and and. not compared to some other central banks but certainly compared to if you look at mark carney is now moving to the bank of england where you know the media environment around the central bank is is fairly it's not adversarial certainly in gauged and so it's you know as we move towards these less and less formal environments it's going to be incumbent on the fed to really fight against that legacy culture and get out there and get the message across clearly and just one more because i do want to be able to pick your brain for just one more minute is there an ivory tower type of culture at the fed where there is really kind of one sort of thought not a lot of dissension or differing views i mean we hear about the richard fisher is they seem to be feeli

ben bernanke, chairman of the federal reserve. who, because he surrounded us with free money and h his low interest rate policy triggered a stock market rally all year long, an economy that while moving slowly certainly showed growth throughout the year. bernanke's policies encouraged lending, it encouraged borrowing, and also told us that the are few alternatives with any returns for our money beyond stocks and housing. for all of that, ben bernanke is my pick for businessperson of the year 2012. that will do it for us for today. thanyou of so much for joining me. next week bewe will coming to you with a brand new look and a brand new name. look for "on the money with maria bartiromo." i'll continue to be here with you as are all of our great guests every week where wall street meets main street. happy new year, everody, wish you the best for 2013. i'll see you next weekend. hey, look! a shooting star! make a wish! i wish we could lie e here forer. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. [ male n

ben bernanke, chairman of the federal reserve. why, because he surrounded us with free money and his low interest rate policy triggered a stock market rally all year long, an economy that while moving slowly certainly showed growth throughout the year. bernanke's policies encouraged lending, it encouraged borrowing, and also told us that there are few alternatives with any returns for our money beyond stocks and housing. for all of that, ben bernanke is my pick for businessperson of the year 2012. that will do it for us for today. thank you of so much for joining me. next week we will coming to you with a brand new look and a brand new name. look for "on the money with maria bartiromo." i'll continue to be here with you, as will all of our great guests every week where wall street meets main street. happy new year, everybody. wish you the best for 2013. i'll see you next weekend.

ben bernanke celebrating his 59th birthday today. we want to know, what do you think bernanke will be wishing for when he blows out his birthday candles which, of course, is what you do if you're on the board of the fomc? tweet us, @squawkstreet. we'll read some of your answers next. sors. can i help you? i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night. is this a trick to get my spot? [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you

bernanke said you know we're not the only ones doing this if you haven't noticed everyone around the world is expanding their balance sheet well yeah no dub and i think everybody has noticed that but also he was saying you know we are not buying as many bonds as many as much debt is the treasury is issuing well yeah that's where foreign lenders come in to write the composition of who is buying and how much has really changed over the last twelve months as of september. as of the treasury's latest figures it said over the last twelve months that china has holdings have actually declined to the tune of about what one hundred fifteen billion dollars while japan has increased their holdings by a hundred forty seven billion dollars so what is the dynamic of this within the currency wars well that's a very very important point a very important story chinese are done with the dollars and they're not going to dump what they have they know that would be disasters and they're not going to do that the president could stop them but they're going to buy less and less at the margin so as they gene

. >> and you can thank big ben bernanke, the fed chief. a lot of people saying that the federal reserve and its herculean efforts to keep the economy moving is why stocks are up, why the economy is growing, and they're expecting the fed to announce new measures, new st stimulus to keep it going. so when you hear the catch phrase that the fed is the only game in town, the fed is the only game in town. around the world it has been central banks who are independent from governments, central banks who have been doing so much, pumping money into the system to keep things going. s&p 500 up 13% so far this year. all of these uncertainties we talked about, the fiscal cliff, all of that stuff, it is because of the certainty of fed policy many people are telling me, also because they think on wall street the fiscal cliff will be avoided. they think on wall street the only thing left to do is a little bit of shouting over what the top rate will be. 36%, 37%. they think corporate taxes will come down and we know that that is in the latest sort of prop

. >> sreenivasan: ben bernanke also had several caveats. explain those? >> so ben bernanke, the fed chairman, was very clear that today's statement doesn't represent an abandonment of low inflation. he said, for example, that if inflation were to rise unexpectedly, over 2.5% in their own forecasts, that might be reason enough for them to start raising interest rates even if unemployment has not come down 206.5%. >> sreenivasan: markets traditionally love certainty. why didn't they embrace it today? >> i think markets are starting to question whether the fed actually has the ability to deliver on this commitment to low unemployment. they've got the interest rates at 0, they have trillions of dollars worth of bonds and still the economy is very, very weak. >> sreenivasan: going forward, are there things that we should be looking for as signs from the fed on what's going to happen or should we be paying more attention to unemployment rate? >> well, the fed has taken one more step today. they're doubling the amount of bonds they're buying by printing money. t

. >> sreenivasan: ben bernanke also had several caveats. explain those? >> so ben bernanke, the fed chairman, was very clear that today's statement doesn't represent an abandonment of low inflation. he said, for example, that if inflation were to rise unexpectedly, over 2.5% in their own forecasts, that might be reasoenough f them to start raising interest rates even if unemployment has not come down 206.5%. >> sreenivasan: markets traditionally love certainty. why didn't they embrace it today? >> i think markets are starting to question whether the fed actually has the ability to deliver on this commitment to low unemployment. they've got the interest rates at 0, they have trillions of dollars worth of bonds and still the economy is very, very weak. >> sreenivasan: going forward, are there things that we should be looking for as signs from the fed on what's going to happen or should we be paying more attention to unemployment rate? >> well, the fed has taken one more step today. they're doubling the amount of bonds they're buying by printing money. they

you had both ben bernanke. you had the minnesota fed chairman -- >> coach likota. >> thank you for bailing me out. >> liesman will be happy i knew that. >> the economy was getting better and the ten-year went from 1.8% all the way up to 2.40. what happened in april? you printed 68,000. the message of the market was wrong. fast forward to september, same thing. the announcement of qe3 was supposed to be reflationary. within one week it was the high of the s&p. >> let's go to stephanie link before we bring in the professor to decide if any of you are getting an "a" on this pone. >> i think the fed will continue to keep rates low because we're only growing gdp at 2.7%. we're looking at the fiscal cliff and austerity and he's doing what he can just to keep this thing afloat and to not go back into a recession. i think rates stay low for an extended period of time. i don't know if we get to 6.5% next year or in two years from now, but that's not -- it's not going to be like all of a sudden we get to 6.5 and bam, he

and then we really watched as ben bernanke was speaking the market lose its steam. the nasdaq also went negative where it is right now, and, you know, bill, i guess we'll ask our guests what it is that the market was disappointed by when listening in to him. a couple of things that i latched on to and one of them is the fact that we don't have the tools if we go over the fiscal cliff. it's going to be costly regardless, even if we go over short term, and the other one was the ability to provide accommodation is not unlimited, ie, we may think that qe will go on forever, but he's saying, guess what, folks, it won't. >> sometimes reality hurts the markets there. >> yeah. >> let's get reaction from our guests, tyler verne oven builtmore capital and our friend ron insana and rick sell who got a shutout during the news conference identified as steve liesman's nemesis and steve who was the first questioner there during the chairman's news conference will be joining us shortly here as well. tyler vernon, what do you make of the fed's new view of monetary policy? they are t