WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is a transcript of comments by
President Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to reporters
following their meeting at the White House Tuesday:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I just had an excellent conversation with
Chairman Bernanke. This is a periodic discussion that we have to get the
Chairmans assessment of the economy and to discuss some of the policy
initiatives that we have here at the White House.

I think in our discussions, we share the view that the economy is
strengthening, that we are into recovery, that its actually led by some
interesting sectors like manufacturing that we havent seen in quite
some time — the tech sectors are strong; we have gone from losing
750,000 jobs per month to five months of job growth now; private sector
job growth that is obviously so important to consumer confidence and the
well-being of the economy overall.

But what we also agreed is that weve still got a lot of work to
do. There is a great concern about the 8 million jobs that were lost
during the course of these last two years, and that weve got to
continually push the pace of economic growth in order to put people back
to work. That ultimately is the measure for most Americans of how well
the economy is doing.

And although weve seen corporate profits go up, we have seen some
very positive trends in a number of sectors, unfortunately, because of
the troubles that weve seen in Europe, were now seeing some headwinds
and some skittishness and nervousness on the part of the markets and on
part of business and investors. And so were still going to have to
work through that.

The thing that I think both of us emphasized was that if we can
make sure that we continue to do the things that were doing, deal with
folks who need help — so passing unemployment insurance, for example;
making sure that we are working to get credit flowing to small
businesses that are still having some difficulties in the credit
markets; strengthening consumer confidence — then we think that the
general trends will be good, but were going to have to keep on paying a
lot of attention to the labor markets and helping people who have been
displaced during the last couple of years get back into the labor
market. So thats going to be a major challenge.

We also talked about the financial regulatory reform package that
has now cleared both the House and the Senate conferees. It will now be
going to both the House and the Senate. This was a result of terrific
work, I think, by my economic team, by members of the committee and
Chairman Dodd and Chairman Frank, and some good advice from Chairman
Bernanke in consultation during this process.

Not only will completion of the financial regulatory reform bill
provide some certainty to the markets about how we are going to prevent
a crisis like this from happening again, but it also ensures that
consumers are going to be protected like never before on all the things
day to day that involve interactions with the financial system. From
credit card debt to mortgages, consumers are going to have the kinds of
protections that they have not had before.

Were going to be taking a whole range of financial instruments
that had been in the shadows and were going to be putting them in the
light of day so that regulators can provide the oversight that
potentially would prevent a future crisis. Were going to be in a
position to resolve the failure of one institution without seeing it
infect the entire financial system.

And this weekend at the G20, we talked about how we can coordinate
effectively with the international community to make sure that high
standards for capital and reduced leverage apply not just here in the
United States but across the board.

So, overall, I think that, listening to Chairman Bernanke, I
continue to be convinced that with financial regulatory reform in place,
with a recovery well underway, that we have enormous potential to build
on the hard work thats been done by this team and put people back to
work and keep this recovery and the economy growing over the next
several years.

But we cant let up. Were going to have to continue to be
vigilant. I know that the Chairman feels the same way with respect to
his role. And we look forward to working together in our respective
institutions to make sure that we keep this recovery going on track.

CHAIRMAN BERNANKE: Thank you. We had a wide-ranging discussion;
Im very appreciative of the chance to do that. We talked about the
outlook for the economy. We talked about financial regulatory reform.
The President talked about some of the issues in that area. But I think
very importantly, we also talked a lot about the international context.
Whats happening around the world in the emerging markets, in Europe,
affects us here in the United States and its important for us to take
that global perspective as we discuss the economy.

THE PRESIDENT: All right.

Q: Mr. President, are you at all concerned that the passing of
Senator Byrd jeopardizes regulatory reform? And how big a blow would
that be to the economic recovery?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Im concerned about the fact that a giant of
the Senate and a personal friend of mine passed away. I dont think
about that in the context of financial regulatory reform.

Im confident that given the package that has been put together,
that senators, hopefully on both sides of the aisle, recognize its time
we put in place rules that prevent taxpayer bailouts and make sure that
we dont have a financial crisis that can tank the economy. And I think
theres going to be enough interest in moving reform forward that were
going to get this done.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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