Bernanke Likens Federal Spending, Federal Reserve to Economy’s ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Respiration’

EXCERPT:

SORKIN: "From a priority perspective, if you were to talk about the importance of things that took place after the crisis, TARP is one of them, clearly, the stress test would be another and I -- I remind everybody, the stock market continued to fall after TARP was enacted. And then there was what the fed was doing. How do you -- how do you rank those in priority order in terms of -- of --" [crosstalk]
BERNANKE: "Fiscal."
SORKIN: “And the fiscal piece."
BERNANKE: "Which is more important. Heartbeat and respiration." (Laughter)