Bernanke: US economy 'close to faltering'

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress the US economy is "close to faltering" and more action may be needed.

Markets responded positively as the head of the Fed said he was "prepared to take further action as appropriate" to bolster the recovery, the BBC reports. His comments come after the Fed already decided to shift $400bn of investments into longer-term government debt. Bernanke said Operation Twist was the equivalent of a half-percentage-point cut in interest rates, and gave a "meaningful, but not an enormous support to the economy". But he warned the eurozone debt crisis, as well as overly hasty spending cuts by the federal government, risked undermining the US recovery. Bernanke...