Bernanke Sees 'Sluggish' Turn

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seemed to answer the question he's been asking since he took the helm of the Federal Reserve last February: Can the housing market recession pull the entire economy into contraction?

His answer seems to be finally that yes, it definitely could, though he refrained in his testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress Thursday morning from explicitly discussing the prospects of a full-blown recession.

He says in his prepared testimony that delinquencies on mortgages "are likely to rise further in coming quarters as a sizable number of recent-vintage subprime loans experience their first interest rate resets." ...