Bob Moon talks with Marketplace’s New York bureau chief Heidi Moore and Sudeep Reddy from the Wall Street Journal about Ben Bernanke’s latest speech, where he pressed Washington to do more, and about where consumer confidence has gone.

On whether Bernanke’s scolding of Washington has any power:

Sudeep Reddy: Well the Fed chairman does have some effect in terms of a bully pulpit in shaping expectations and driving the debate in Washington. Unfortunately, though, we have such a toxic political atmosphere right now that it’s not clear how much it would matter. A lot of what Chairman Bernanke said during the debt debate was actually ignored.

On the double-take the markets took this morning in response to the speech:

Heidi Moore: I guess Wall Street realized that they already have the best of all possible worlds and they should stop complaining. Zero percent interest rates for two years, and two more years of it to come — what more can the Street ask for? This is what has been driving stocks so high.

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