Bernanke to budget-cutting state and local governments: Don't shortchange education
VIDEO
March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Former Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner talks about U.S. inflation and Federal Reserve monetary policy. Fed Chairman Bernard S. Bernanke, while delivering his semiannual testimony before Congress yesterday, signaled he's in no rush to tighten credit after the central bank finishes an expansion of record monetary stimulus, seeing little inflation risk and still-slow job growth. Kroszner speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, March 2, 2011; 10:38 PM
Even as state and local governments take difficult steps to balance their budgets and address long-term shortfalls in their pension systems, they should not neglect the education and training programs that are the key to the nation's competitiveness, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernankeargued Wednesday.
Sticking his toe into an increasingly fraught political issue - a standoff over bargaining rights for public workers in Wisconsin is only the most vivid example of a debate happening in many states - Bernanke acknowledged that the trade-offs facing state officials are "daunting," but he made the nuance