Federal Reserve

Ben Bernanke is to be reappointed for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, according to a White House official.

The U. S. economy is in what former Federal Reserve governor Laurence Meyer describes as a 'danger zone, ' close to if not in recession.

A study by economists at the Federal Reserve found that GDI is often more reliable than GDP in spotting the start of a recession.

She grew up in affluent Washington circles, the daughter of a governor of the Federal Reserve System.

A good deal of the money that the Federal Reserve pumped into the U. S. financial markets through QE2 didn't stay in those markets.

The Federal Reserve will certainly do all that it can to help restore high rates of growth and employment in a context of price stability.

The Federal Reserve has taken the lead with its imaginative expansion of swap arrangements with central banks in a few emerging economies.

"I did not tell Bank of America's management that the Federal Reserve would take action against the board or management, " he said.

Investors also said the Federal Reserve would be less likely to cut stimulus to the economy while employment remained weak.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the economy is going through a very difficult period.

According to a new paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the U. S. consumer doesn't actually buy all that much Chinese stuff.

The slowdown was worse than economists expected but is likely to be viewed by the Federal Reserve as a prelude to a gradual recovery.

In an August report, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas actually put it a bit higher.

But the US campaign was undermined by fears it was trying to push down the dollar by the Federal Reserve's return to quantitative easing.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the public and investors should take "considerable comfort" .

The Federal Reserve's regional beige book survey found the economy continued to weaken as discounts failed to revive consumer spending.

However, for most people the actions of the Federal Reserve seem to have no connection to their day to day life.

The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are trying to push down borrowing costs to spur faster growth.

The Federal Reserve predicts the U. S. economy will come out of recession and resume growing toward the end of this year.

At a banking conference, Bernanke also said the Federal Reserve Board had not agreed on criteria that would prompt additional easing.

The Federal Reserve would have to pump huge sums of money into the market to keep other banks afloat after Salomon failed to pay them.

Just last month, the bank performed better than expected on the Federal Reserve's 'stress test' of top banks' strength.

If you will pull a dollar bill out and take a look at it, you will notice that it says "Federal Reserve Note" at the top.

Obama described the group, to be led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker as "additional eyes and ears" .

The stakes are just as high for AIG, and for America's Treasury and Federal Reserve, to which it owes $132 billion.

If our research is to be of any help to you and American Federal Reserve, we are more than pleased to offer the consequent research results.

At this point Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke rubs his hands together expectantly.

In the next few weeks, the Federal Reserve is expected to inject vast sums of money into the economy in another attempt to spur growth.

The Federal Reserve is still spooked by recession. It kept interest rates unchanged this week, as did the Bank of England earlier in June.

Federal Reserve dictates how we live, how much money we make, save and sub prime mortgages!

Bernanke said the Federal Reserve should be extensively involved in the collective effort to promote financial stability.

Barbara Hagenbaugh, a spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve, said the Fed had not received an application required for such an acquisition.

Only a few months ago, the US Federal Reserve was telling markets the next move in interest rates was likely to be up.

So, during the past few weeks, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve have been desperately trying to fight that freeze.

Such a move would follow similar action taken by the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve System , or the Fed as it is usually called, is the fiscal agent of the United States .

In the best of times, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve pretended as if the dollar were America's currency alone.

For many commentators, the resumption of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve has appeared to spark a currency war between the U.

Astudy by economists at the Federal Reserve found that GDI is often morereliable than GDP in spotting the start of a recession.

Mr. Brown has backed the Bank of England, which, like the Federal Reserve, has engaged in unconventional moves to free up credit.

While I would like nothing more than to see the Federal Reserve abolished, it is not absolutely necessary to do so with direct legislation.

If the bank replenishes its vault cash, its account at the ReserveBank is drawn down in exchange for notes issued by the Federal Reserve.

At least 90% of the cause for the financial crisis can be laid at the doorstep of the Federal Reserve.

As you know, in March the Federal Reserve acted to prevent the default of the investment bank Bear Stearns.

The Federal Reserve sounded a bit more optimistic about the American economy than it has for a while.

The Federal Reserve has used its authority as a bank supervisor to help facilitate the flow of credit through the banking system.

But he said the Federal Reserve needed to conclude the stress tests before deciding who needed more capital.

Alan Blinder, the former Federal Reserve vice-chairman, has called the decision to let the bank fail "a colossal error" .

But then in 1979, the tide began to turn when Paul Volcker took over the U. S. Federal Reserve and waged war against inflation.

The recovery has lost momentum, the U. S. is up to its neck in debt and the Federal Reserve is considering more stimulus.

In an August report, the Federal Reserve Bank ofDallasactually put it a bit higher.

Federal Reserve policymakers have decided for a second straight meeting to leave the federal funds rate at two percent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the housing slump will continue to be a drag on U. S. growth into next year.

The U. S. Federal Reserve is trying to help the 4th largest U. S. credit card company by allowing it to become a commercial bank.

he Federal Reserve Board would seem to have little reason to tighten the money supply and push interest rates up.

But what sort of reduction might the Federal Reserve, which controls roughly 80 per cent of AIA's parent, be prepared to take?

IT HAS been a long time since comments on the economy by an official of America's Federal Reserve comments could be described as cheerful.

Besides, the rate gap between emerging markets and America's Federal Reserve is already wider now than it was a year or two ago.

Chicago Federal Reserve president Charles Evans on Friday said the United States was "tentatively" emerging from a severe recession.

The bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and said it expected to get permission from the Federal Reserve to raise its dividend.

Far from acting as a stabilizer, the Federal Reserve failed to act as it should have in several circumstances.

For its part, Bernanke said, the Federal Reserve will continue to monitor economic conditions and carefully adjust its policies accordingly.

range for the Federal Reserve's key policy rate, suggesting investors expect the Fed to be on hold at least that long.

Officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently said the group's proposed overhauls don't go far enough.

The "easy way out" he referred to was the Federal Reserve's decision last week to flood $600 billion into the economy.

What's more, Federal Reserve officials have already signaled that they would be prepared to take action to prevent deflation developing.

The Federal Reserve should not make a credible commitment to future inflation as a means of stimulating aggregate demand.

Investors are watching to see whether the US Federal Reserve will also provide additional liquidity into the US system.

At the White House, Mr. Bush met with his economic advisers as well as the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, to discuss next steps.

Major indexes managed to finish the day well off their lows after Lehman denied rumors it had borrowed directly from the Federal Reserve.

The endorsement of that thesis by Fed Chairman Bernanke is one more sign that the Federal Reserve is in the wrong hands.

If Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke had a tank, I wouldn't just be in it; I'd probably be the bouncer checking ID's at the door.

Also adding fuel to the recovery is the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program, though the economists said the effect may not be large.

"The Federal Reserve swap action is not a bailout for anyone but certainly not a bailout for Greece, " he said.

A draft of the new rule is set to be approved by the Federal Reserve Board and put out for public comment within weeks.

Barney Frank, the chairman, is not interested in the Federal Reserve taking over all this consumer protection bureaucracy.

A company that owns two or more banks. Required to register with the governors of the federal reserve system.

Consumer prices, which the Federal Reserve would prefer to see growing 1. 5% to 2% a year excluding food and energy, are barely rising.

The Federal Reserve joined in with its biggest ever cut proportionate to its main target interest rate, and shares enjoyed an upward surge.

The Federal Reserve, the market believes, has opted to allow inflation to increase as a way out of the current problems for the US.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan warned of "irrational exuberance, " but that did not deflate the dot-com stock market bubble.

In light of these developments, the Federal Reserve will need to consider whether the current stance of policy remains appropriate ". "

and you may recall that part of the reason the Federal Reserve engaged in quantitative easing was the threat of a deflationary spiral.

On CNN's Late Edition program, Treasury Secretary Paulson said the action taken by the Federal Reserve was warranted.

There wasn't much to celebrate in the U. S. either, as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's economic gauge unexpectedly fell below zero.

If the much vaunted systems do not work, then the central banks will have to step in (as the Federal Reserve did with LTCM).

"We're now in a state of fear, " is how Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, described it at a conference this week.

Today, the Federal Reserve is trying to re-expand demand in a post-bubble US economy.

The Federal Reserve, whose meetings lately have had less impact than normal on stocks, is suddenly a focus of concern as well.

President Obama has nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the United States central bank.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. (Reuters) - Bigger, as the Federal Reserve may soon discover, is not always better.

To understand how unwise it is to have the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the magnitude of the privileges they have.

It was around lunchtime at the Federal Reserve, where meetings continued to take place.

WHEN the Federal Reserve put its monetary foot to the floor two years ago, it had plenty of company.

That could push Federal Reserve interest rate rises even further down the road, he said.

"The Federal Reserve took extraordinary actions to arrest this crisis and prevent utter economic catastrophe, " he said.

Now they come from the president of the United States and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

None of this comes as a surprise to the former Princeton University professor who now chairs the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke.

And current projections, like those of the Federal Reserve, suggest that the economy will remain depressed at least through 2014.

Only by borrowing from the Federal Reserve on an unprecedented scale have the banks been able to stay in business.

The US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are currently doing much more than working out this lesson.

The Federal Reserve seems to be sequestering all of this cash to buy time for the Treasury to finish its funding activities.

When the two of us left the New York Federal Reserve on Sunday night, we knew that the financial landscape was in for a seismic shock.

The world did not end on Monday, even if the stock market dropped, and on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve was also defiant.

The Federal Reserve wants to subject US banks to annual stress tests, reserving the right to veto dividend pay-outs if they do not pass.

Responding to thousands of complaints, the Federal Reserve Board issued new rules last December to help curb unfair and deceptive practices.

Alan Greenspan, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, recently said it was possible the economy might slip into a recession this year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the latest increases in energy prices have added to inflation risks.

Federal Reserve Bank. Earlier this week most Asian stock exchanges plummeted on fears that the U. S. credit crisis is far from over.

The strategy seemed to work, long enough that it eventually became a standard tool for the Federal Reserve, one the bank deployed in 2008.

The U. S. Federal Reserve said yesterday that the American economy expanded at a "modest pace" in September and early October.

This might explain the recovery in risky assets just as well as the promise of fresh easy money from the Federal Reserve.

The year started with Ben Bernanke, Time magazine's Man of 2009, being confirmed to another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other economists have proclaimed the end of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Among the reasons: liquidity injections by central banks, especially the US Federal Reserve, have erred on the side of overkill.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart participated in the session but did not make comments.

The U. S. Federal Reserve's current interest-rate target is 1% -- a level Mr. Loynes expects the Bank of England to reach next year.

The increasingly internationalised renminbi is a development that the US Federal Reserve is beginning to monitor.

Economists said the US inflation figures made the Federal Reserve more likely to keep interest rates on hold.

The U. S. Federal Reserve meets this week to consider if another interest rate cut is needed to help stave off a recession.

The US Federal Reserve has already begun to do this with its special lending facilities and rescue of Bear.

Before assuming the presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Geithner was a policy director at the International Monetary Fund.

RICHARD FISHER, president of the Federal Reserve's Dallas regional bank, did not hold back.

Since Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, hinted in late August that it was on its way, financial markets have responded vigorously.

Also, projections that the Federal Reserve will have to loosen policy further to stimulate growth is weighing on the U. S. currency.

They're all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs.

The Federal Reserve's decision to spur the economy with a $600 billion round of bond buying was among the most controversial in its history.

The end of the Federal Reserve's scheme for purchasing mortgage-backed securities has already led to a jump in the rates paid by homebuyers.

If banks are unwilling to do this, central banks will have to replace them, as the Federal Reserve is now doing.

The Bank joined the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the ECB, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank in making the announcement.

Reserve balances deposited at the Federal Reserve Bank by US commercial banks. These funds can be lent out to other member . . .

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan points out that, recently, bank borrowing costs began to fall as capital levels rose.

The Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate today by one quarter of a percentage point. It's an effort to keep the country out of recession.

The Federal Reserve said it would likely keep short-term interest rates near zero for at least two more years.

The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, especially, will keep rates close to zero throughout 2010.

When the Federal Reserve prints a million dollars it does not also produce steel, nails, or any other type of capital good.

Asia has traditionally waited for the U. S. Federal Reserve to act before tightening or loosening its own monetary policy.

The Federal Reserve colleagues who had been with me in Switzerland that weekend were already on other flights.

The Federal Reserve Board regulates the minimum margins, the number which have to be paid in cash as a percentage of purchase.

A cynical observer might well conclude that the Federal Reserve threw caution to the wind years ago.

Interest rate futures markets are now pricing in as a certainty that the US Federal Reserve will make at least one cut in rates by January.

Just like the Federal Reserve, it should be responsible for maintaining a sound banking system and stable capital markets.

"The President supports the agreement announced this evening by the Federal Reserve, " said a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto.

Presidents do not directly affect monetary policy because the U. S. Federal Reserve is an independent entity.

First, it does not pursue what Dan Tarullo, one of the governors of the Federal Reserve, has called "reform by nostalgia" .

In such a crisis, it might well be feared, a less-than-independent Federal Reserve would be compelled to buy public debt.

The Federal Reserve was seen as the most likely candidate for that role in the United States.

The province of the Federal Reserve is the health of the banking system, generally, through regulation of the money supply, specifically.

Since the inflation crisis of the 1970s, the Federal Reserve has consistently pursued the goal of price stability in the United States.

A new asset bubble or a strong recovery may eventually force him to raise rates or shrink the Federal Reserve's balance sheet.

During the global financial crisis, the U. S. Federal Reserve approved swap arrangements with Singapore, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico.

The U. S. Federal Reserve, by contrast, signaled recently that it would remain an active player in U. S. debt markets.

With rates held low by the U. S. Federal Reserve, financing rates remain at some of the cheapest on record.

This week, the Federal Reserve announced a program to lend up to five hundred forty billion dollars to money market mutual funds.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's average grade rose slightly to a 72, but 26% gave him the equivalent of a D or F.

This week the Federal Reserve agreed to lend up to eighty-five billion dollars to the nation's largest insurance company.

The Federal Reserve's recent and unprecedented actions in the realm of monetary policy have provoked a backlash among the American people.

But such fears have been mitigated, for some, because Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is himself a student of the Great Depression.

The US Federal Reserve appears to be following suit, although on a smaller scale so far.

The US Federal Reserve's desperate attempts to keep America's economy from sinking are remarkable for at least two reasons.

The Federal Reserve reinstalled currency-swap lines that will also make dollars more easily accessible to funding markets around the globe.

The Federal Reserve restored some stability to dislocated credit markets without a cut to its key interest rate.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Monday it would be "appropriate" for lawmakers to consider "a fiscal package. "

The scariest thing I've read recently is a speech given last week by Tim Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The U. S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to put an end to the panic in the stock market.

Alan Greenspan, then Federal Reserve chairman, was stunned by an unprecedented seizing up of capital markets.

We're working with the Federal Reserve and FDIC, and credit is beginning to move.

Recoveries continued and sometimes even accelerated until they were murdered by the Federal Reserve with inflation control as the motive.

Historically, deflation was a common feature of the American economy, particularly before the establishment of the Federal Reserve.

But many investors stayed on the sidelines, waiting for the outcome of the U. S. Federal Reserve meeting slated for later in the day.

A 1970 amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act placed all bank holding companies under the supervision of the Federal Reserve Board.

Earlier this year, Chinese officials had suggested they were uncomfortable with the Federal Reserve's rapid expansion of its balance sheet.

The United States currently has a yearly inflation rate of about three percent. The Federal Reserve considers this within acceptable limits.

The Federal Reserve will print money to buy nearly as much U. S. Treasury debt in the next eight months as the U. S. government will issue.

The Federal Reserve is still running easy money policies, but the U. S. economy is sluggish, as is Europe.

Such a decision would require endorsements from the FDIC, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.

Relevant policy is made by the Federal Reserve, which has no mandate to preserve the dollar's external value.

The U. S. dollar and euro both fell to session lows against the Swiss franc ahead of the Federal Reserve announcement.

When asked whether Ben Bernanke should be re-appointed as Federal Reserve Chairman, Buffett said 'I don't see how you could do better. '

Pursuant to its essence as a post-Peel Act Central Bank, the Federal Reserve enjoys a monopoly of the issue of all bank notes.

The US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says America's creditworthiness is at risk if the country's borrowing limit is not raised.

He predicted that the downgrade would lead the Federal Reserve to launch a third round of bond purchases to stabilize the long-term U.

O: In cooperation with the Cabinet we do . Our functions are not as independent as those of the Federal Reserve in the United States.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve cautioned that the economy's recovery would be weak initially, and job creation would be slow.

But given the politicians' current uselessness, the only institution with the power to avert danger is the Federal Reserve.

S. Federal Reserve increases the amount of money in circulation in the coming weeks to stimulate the American economy.

The Federal Reserve has committed itself to keeping rates at their current ultra-low level (between zero and 0. 25%) for the next two years.

The war will be a logical consequence of changes in Federal Reserve policy in the U. S.

In fact, the U. S. Federal Reserve called just such a meeting in the week before the SEC filed its case.

So, even in the very unlikely circumstance that the Federal Reserve embarks on such a program, I am doubtful it would do much good.

The Treasury has now abandoned any note issue, leaving all the country's paper notes, or "cash, " to be emitted by the Federal Reserve.

Second, the Federal Reserve is boosting the money supply by creating commercial bank reserves, the modern day equivalent of printing money.

These signs of rising tension came as the US Federal Reserve redoubled its efforts to ease conditions in the money markets.

In Washington, the Federal Reserve declined to comment, in keeping with its policy of not remarking on the actions of other central banks.

Mr. Yu was less reticent last week, when he denounced U. S. Treasury bonds as a giant 'ponzi scheme' boosted by Federal Reserve purchases.

Both the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve should resist the temptation to tighten soon.

In the U. S. , for example, the Federal Reserve seems to be hunkering down for an extended period of slow growth.

In the United States, that will be one more reason for the Federal Reserve to put off raising interest rates anytime in 2010.

The next step is to remove the Federal Reserve dollar from its pre-eminent position.

ROCKET science may be out of fashion on Wall Street, but it still has a following at the Federal Reserve.

How can one credibly argue for more transparency in government in one breath and defend the secrecy of the Federal Reserve in the next?

Investors are still fearful that the Federal Reserve may be running out of options to ward off a U. S. recession.

It railed against the Federal Reserve's second wave of quantitative easing, launched in November, for pushing up prices around the world.

The Federal Reserve's interest rate setting committee will meet this week to decide on the latest policy measures for the U. S. economy.

A report from the U. S. Federal Reserve underscored the strains U. S. producers have faced from soaring commodity prices.

Defending the Federal Reserve, Mr Obama said it was in nobody's interests for the US to be "stuck with no growth or very limited growth" .

The Federal Reserve helped get the parties involved to agree on a plan to save the company.

The market impact is likely to be muted for now, given the Federal Reserve's bond-buying under its "quantitative easing" programme.

Quantitative easing is nothing more than the Federal Reserve printing money and creating inflation.

Traders and analysts point to one factor as the cause: the Federal Reserve's efforts to flood the financial markets with dollars.

The Chinese president has complaints of his own, particularly with Federal Reserve policy aimed at stimulating the economy.

It is a sign of how strange the times are that the Federal Reserve is now fending off the opposite demand.

'Kimberly Clark, as you probably know, makes toilet paper. And the Federal Reserve makes dollar bills.

The regular operations in money markets by the Federal Reserve and its brethren are designed to meet the vagaries of demand for ready cash.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said later that the markets went into "anaphylactic shock. "

Most economists now agree that Greenspan, as chairman of the U. S. Federal Reserve, kept interest rates too low for too long.

If Federal Reserve policy makers had a motto, it would be 'better safe than sorry. '

I regret to say that the Federal Reserve independence is not set in stone.

The Federal Reserve System is analyzed, and advanced students are coached in the proper method of filling out a deposit slip.

Primitive monetary systems require the same balance of supply and demand that confronted the U. S. Treasury and Federal Reserve System .

Little less important was the role of Paul Volcker, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, in crushing inflation.

The Federal Reserve dates only from 1911, and before then experiments with central banking in the United States had been sporadic.

True, the Federal Reserve would be exposed to credit risk, as it is now.

Representatives of the New York Federal Reserve, as well as Treasury officials, are also monitoring developments.

And market pressures forced the Federal Reserve into a huge $85bn takeover of AIG, our largest insurer, to avert its bankruptcy.

A new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland tracks various measures of entrepreneurship over the last few years.

That bill would not create an independent consumer agency, but instead a new office at the Federal Reserve, the central bank.

Wednesday's event was the first of its kind in the ninety-eight-year history of the Federal Reserve.

Federal Reserve officials also have concluded it would be unwise to force out Mr. Lewis now, said people familiar with the situation.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan describes the current financial crisis as a once-in-a-century credit tsunami .

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, would be well advised to heed his own advice from 2002.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sounded more hopeful as he appeared Tuesday before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress.

U. S. central bank system consisting of 12 Federal Reserve districts with a Reserve bank in the principal commercial city of each district.

Some investors are worried that the Federal Reserve's commitment to buying more Treasury could mean higher inflation down the road.

The United States was represented by the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke.

It was a stark warning from the Federal Reserve Board Chairman: Congress must act now to head off a looming crisis in social security.

In his testimony, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke offered what he called an important caveat to projections about recovery.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said there have been signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing.

In particular, he sees another flurry of quantitative easing by the U. S. Federal Reserve as being "impotent. "

The Federal Reserve Board regulates the minimum margins, the amount that must be paid in cash as a percentage of purchase.

And the U. S. Federal Reserve indicated it could take a similar action, called quantitative easing, soon.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may have to muffle his applause for the sturdier U. S. economic recovery.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his most pessimistic assessment to date of the U.

That may require new tools: the Federal Reserve would gain from being able to issue bonds that could mop up liquidity.

Bernanke is due to participates in a question-and-answer session after a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday.

These days, the phrase 'divided government' could just as easily apply to the Federal Reserve.

A Greek default also would be costly to the European Central Bank, the Continent's equivalent of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve is not the primary federal supervisor for the majority of commercial bank assets.

The meeting in Washington came at Paulson's request. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was also in attendance.

WITH strains intensifying in the money markets, the Federal Reserve still faces the burden of averting a serious recession.