In his semi-annual report to Congress, Ben Bernanke reaffirmed the Federal Reserves bond buying policy, but said monetary policy alone cannot prop up the economy.

With the Federal Reserve's interest rate near zero and the recovery still slow, some economists are speculating on what you might call a "nuclear option".

U.S. markets are down slightly this morning on the latest jobs data from the Labor Department which said that just 80,000 jobs were added in the U.S. last month and unemployment remained at 8.2 percent.