Three shorter, excerpted clips from the complete town hall interview available here.
Excerpt 1: Bernanke on the bailouts and too big to fail (6:27).
Excerpt 2: Bernanke on unemployment and the Fed's mistakes with sub-prime mortgages and the housing bubble (4:12).
Excerpt 3: Bernanke responds to calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve (2:06). As I've written before, the last thing we need is Congress dictating monetary policy and influencing interest rate decisions. I have never supported that portion of HR 1207.
B-52 is disingenuous however when he states that the Fed is open to an audit of its balance sheet and investments. For months they have fought transparency and FOI lawsuits brought by Bloomberg and Fox News. They released AIG counterparty data only after threats from Congress, and they are still fighting transparency on Maiden Lane I,II and III. Further questions surround the $400 billion in ring-fenced asset guarantees given to Citigroup and Bank of America.