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Bloomberg-

The Federal Reserve’s semi-annual testimony to Congress rarely offers any surprises, and the first day of Chairman Ben Bernanke’s appearance this week mostly fits the pattern.

Bernanke confined himself almost entirely to restating things he’s said before. He told the Senate Banking Committee that the current stance of “highly accommodative” monetary policy met the Fed’s cost-benefit test. It’s supporting a “moderate if somewhat uneven pace” of economic expansion, he said, with inflation safely anchored and other financial risks under control. He gave no sign of a near-term change in the policy.

The liveliest moment came when Senator Elizabeth Warren went after Bernanke over implicit subsidies to the banks, citing Bloomberg View calculations that the benefit of expected bailouts is more than $80 billion a year. How can that be justified, the Massachusetts Democrat asked? Whatever the exact figure, it can’t be, he said. The challenge is to attack the underlying expectations — which the Dodd-Frank Act and the reforms it will usher in should help to do.

[BLOOMBERG]

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