Knowledge@wharton

As CBS News put it ”When the Fed Chairman Speaks Everyone Freaks.” What that hyperbolic headline refers to is the sell-off in stocks and rise in bond yields this week after Ben Bernanke the Federal Reserve chairman reportedly told a CNBC reporter that markets had misread his testimony before Congress last week during which he had seemed to hint that the Fed might pause in raising interest rates. Stocks and bonds rallied in response. But after suggesting at a Washington correspondents’ dinner over the weekend that the markets had ”misunderstood” him the sell-off began. What exactly is the Fed likely to do on May 10? And what will that mean for investors? Jeremy Siegel a professor of finance at Wharton and author of the book The Future for Investors spoke with Knowledge at Wharton’s Mukul Pandya and Robbie Shell about interest rates oil prices the commodities markets Bernanke’s learning curve and President Bush’s approval ratings among other topics. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out i