An interview like Bernanke is submitting to now is very novel, and he explains that the reason he allowed this one is due to the extraordinary nature of the times.
Savings from China, OPEC and the like threw the US financial system out of whack and the regulators did a poor job, he says.
Tougher regulation of large firms, ways to wind down firms in trouble are two ways to avoid a repeat of our present problems, he says.
Efforts so far have produced results; mortgage rates are lower, money markets are functioning; these will help rekindle confidence.
A sign of recovery would be banks raising private capital.
He ends with three messages to the American public: The Fed will do everything it can to help the economy; the economy will not recover until the banks stable; Economy will recovery is a sustained way, owing to its dynamism.
