Fed Chief Wishes Chinese Consumers Consume More

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has a few wishes.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has a few wishes.

On the top of that list is for China to make its consumers consume more U.S. goods; that way the global trade “imbalances” will level out, he said.

Bernanke also wished that the United States reduce its federal budget deficit in order to increase savings.

However, the Fed chief offered no ways to do so, according to the Associated Press.

In fact, Bernanke in his speech at the Fed conference focused primarily on those countries, like China, that have trade surpluses with the United States.

Bernanke pointed to the 1990s Asian financial crisis as an example of the trade situation in which the U.S. economy currently faces.

The world economy is in recovery with Asia to be leading the way, he said.

But talk about interest rates was nowhere in his talk; it is expected that rates will remain near zero until sometime next year.

The U.S. budget deficit increased to a record $1.4 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year ended September 30.

China is the largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds, though decreased its load by about $3 billion from July to August of this year.