Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said his biggest concern for the U-S economy is the high unemployment rate. Bernanke spoke Monday to the Economic Club of Indiana and said the economy is recovering from the recession too slowly.
Bernanke spoke about the Federal Reserve’s ongoing effort to foster economic growth by buying mortgage-backed securities and keeping short-term interest rates low. He said the economy is expanding, making another recession unlikely, but he doesn't think it’s growing fast enough.
"The more people we’re going to have whose skills are going to atrophy whose ability to find work is going to decline and we’ll be creating a permanent group of people who are not fulfilling their full potential in the labor force,0” said Bernanke.
He added that the Fed on its own cannot solve the problem.
"Monetary policy is no panacea," Bernanke said. "It can be used to support stronger economic growth in situations, as today, in which the economy is not making full use of its resources."
Bernanke said other solutions include reforming the tax code, making the federal budget sustainable and expanding international trade.