Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke Takes Question on the Economy in NewsHour Forum

JIM LEHRER MODERATES A ONE-HOUR FORUM – WITH A STUDIO AUDIENCE AND ONLINE PARTICIPATION – ON SUNDAY, JULY 26, AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF KANSAS CITY

Is the economy gaining sufficient strength, in the wake of last year’s economic crisis? What was the role of the Federal Reserve helping to cope with it?  What extraordinary actions did it take to staunch the financial meltdown that started unfolding last September?  What can the Fed do to help bring on an economic recovery?

To attempt to answer these questions, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will sit down with Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, for a one-hour forum, “Bernanke On the Record.” The event will be recorded on Sunday, July 26th, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to Lehrer, an invited audience of local citizens will be on hand to ask questions of the Chairman. The audience is being gathered with the help of Kansas City public television station KCPT and other local community organizations.

NewsHour Economics Correspondent Paul Solman will contribute video packages that introduce discussion topics in the program. Solman will also field questions for Mr. Bernanke on his NewsHour Web site The Business Desk.

The forum will be divided into three segments which will air on three consecutive nights on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The segment broadcast dates are Monday, July 27, Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29.  PBS will also feed the complete one-hour special program to local PBS stations for broadcast on or after Wednesday, July 29, and it will also be available for viewing on the Online NewsHour Web site.

A full transcript of the forum will be publically available Monday morning and available online. A press room will be available at the event for reporters with pen and pad only. A video pool feed will be available Monday afternoon.  For further information contact Anne Bell at (703) 998-2175 . 

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is seen five nights a week on more than 315 PBS stations across the country (check local listings) and is also available online, via public radio in select markets and via podcast.  The program is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, in association with WETA, Washington, DC and WNET.org in New York.  Corporate funding for The NewsHour is provided by Chevron and Intel, along with major funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers.  Additional funding for NewsHour economics coverage is provided the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.