Bernanke’s response to Schumer probably had the opposite effect of the release of the Fed minutes yesterday. The attitude of “ehh, it will work itself out, no biggie” from the minutes switched to “I want to assure you that the Federal Reserve, in cooperation with other federal agencies, is closely monitoring developments in financial markets …the Federal Open Market Committee has stated that it is monitoring the situation and is prepared to act as needed to mitigate the adverse effects on the economy arising from the disruptions in financial markets.”