Bernanke Worries More About EU In Testimony

Fed chief Bernanke’s worries about the eurozone financial crisis have not ended, based on comments he will make before the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform of the U.S. House of Representatives. Bernanke says that one-fifth of US exports go to the region where the GDPs of many nations have started to contract. And, the next actions the EU and its members must take will to help stability and improve GDP expansion will be hard, although Bernanke says they are essential:

Full resolution of the crisis will require a further strengthening of the European banking system; a significant expansion of financial backstops, or “firewalls,” to guard against contagion in sovereign debt markets; and, critically, continued efforts to increase economic growth and competitiveness and to reduce external imbalances in the troubled countries.

He has made similar comments before, but, based on the actions of EU leaders, his opinions have fallen on deaf ears.