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BY MEREDITH BALDWIN

Economic recovery is slow. Spending levels are unsustainable. And the fed is sticking to its current policies of low interest rates. Those are the three main points that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s focused on in his testimony to the House Budget Committee on Thursday. C-SPAN has a clip.

“Although we cannot expect our economy to grow it’s way out of our fiscal imbalances, a more productive economy will ease the trade offs that we face and increase the likelihood that we leave a healthy economy to our children and grandchildren.”

In short, he is urging Congress to not cut deficits too quickly or it will be a mess.  But market analysts aren’t so quick to back Bernanke. An economic correspondent for the Wall Street Journal said he’s not quite sure what Bernanke’s thinking.

“You know, it looks like the economy’s on a more solid track, and yet the Fed is saying ‘we’re going to hold off on raising interest rates even longer than we said before.’ There’s a certain incoherency about this.”

A guest speaker for FOX Business said Bernanke’s take on the market isn’t just incoherent, but wrong.

“He’s trying to pretend that interest rates are rising because the economy’s improving. That’s not the case.”

Bloomberg points out that if interest rates stay low, budget deficits could reach an unprecedented high in the next ten years.

“The deficit would reach $1.5 trillion by 2022, CBO estimated, and the debt would rise to levels unseen since the government was paying off its World War II expenses.”