Later today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will appear in a scheduled press conference for the first time. Economists are watching closely, as one off-hand comment by him could send global markets soaring or plunging. Bernanke hopes to bolster the public’s confidence in the Fed, while simultaneously pulling back the curtain on some of the nation’s central bank’s signature bureaucratic secrecy.
David Stockman, former Republican representative from Michigan, and director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1981 to 1985, discusses some of Bernanke’s options as well as the merits and failures of both the Democrats and the Republicans in their proposals to tackle the deficit.