COSTELLO: Right now Wall Street has its eyes trained on Washington where later today, the Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, could announce a decision about whether the Central Bank will scale back its stimulus program. Why should I care? Well, this is the program that keeps interest rates on mortgages low. Christine Romans is in New York to tell us more. Good morning.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And it keeps the unemployment rate from rising too much. That's what many economists say, Carol. Look, what Ben Bernanke and the fed do about what -- about their stimulus is incredibly important to everyone's 401(k), to interest rates, to mortgage rates and to the health of the American economy. I want you to imagine Ben Bernanke, Carol, as a fireman, a firefighter, with this huge, huge, wide hose and he is spraying money into the economy, $85 billion worth of money gushing into the economy every month. That's essentially what the stimulus is doing, $85 billion a month. That can't go on forever. Every time the economy shows a little bit more strength, a little bit more stability, the questions arise is, will Ben Bernanke and crew slow down the trickle of money coming into the economy and what will happen? So what they will be doing today is weighing things that are going right in the economy. Housing is recovering, the job market, we're adding about 190,000 jobs a month on average this year, inflation is under control, consumer spending is rising, but we still have high long-term unemployment. We still have slow economic growth.
Investors Waiting For Bernanke's Remarks