Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve chairmen usually speak to Congress and economists with dry, technical language. Sunday night, Ben Bernanke took a different tack.
Bernanke took questions from ordinary Americans in a town-hall-style event in Kansas City, Mo., hosted by PBS anchor Jim Lehrer and set to be broadcast this week.
A small-business owner complained that the federal bailouts of giant firms were “hard to swallow,” saying he felt small businesses were being shortchanged.
“I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression,” Bernanke said.
“I had to hold my nose and stop those firms from failing.”
