Bernanke says NO to stimulus addicts

CNN's Erin Burnett discusses the news from the Fed about not providing any additional stimulus to help U.S. avoid its fiscal cliff.

Stephen Moore from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and  Christian Weller, Fellow for the Center of American Progress goes OutFront.

Bernanke predicts 'frustratingly slow' unemployment drop

Reduction in the unemployment rate is "likely to be frustratingly slow," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday morning.

In his prepared testimony, Bernanke added that the Fed's overall forecast shows unemployment still stuck above 7% or higher at the end of 2014.

Bernanke - on Capitol Hill for his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress - noted that while employment conditions had been improving, the average increase in new jobs has been shrinking to about 75,000 per month since April.

And Bernanke tossed the ball in the direction of Congress, saying the most effective way lawmakers could help support the economy right now would be to address the nation's fiscal challenges in a way that won't harm the recovery but takes into account the "long-run sustainability" of the economy. Another episode like the chaotic debate over raising the debt ceiling was the sort of thing Americans needed to avoid this fall, he said.

But the Fed chairman had better news on inflation, saying that the lower price of oil has brought inflation down, and the Fed is now projecting a rate of 1.2% to 1.7% this year, and 2% or less in 2013 and 2014.

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