JACKSON, Wyo. — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke chided Congress on Friday for its contentious approach to the national debt, saying the brinksmanship displayed by lawmakers could endanger the U.S. economy.
In a rare scolding of Congress, Bernanke said that debt-ceiling negotiations this summer, which flirted with a national default, “disrupted financial markets and probably the economy as well.” Speaking at an annual conference of central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, he warned that, “similar events in the future could, over time, seriously jeopardize the willingness of investors around the world to hold U.S. financial assets or to make direct investments in job-creating U.S. businesses.”
Bernanke has serious academic credentials and has served under both a Republican president and a Democratic president. He understand complex economic issues. Congress does not. It would behoove them to listen to him. The American economy can never be held hostage again. It isn’t a tool to use to posture one’s political position.
