Bernanke says news reports comparing “apples, oranges, bananas and pineapples”

Screaming headlines about the Fed’s lending and guarantees adding up to $10 odd trillion has been debunked by Bernanke. He says the press has merely added a series of numbers that are not necessarily additive. One cannot merely add up the total of the TARP, AIG, etc. to arrive at the Fed’s exposure, he said. He did not quantify what the Fed’s actual exposures are.