In the currency market, the dollar edged higher against the euro. Late Wednesday, the euro was trading at $1.4619 vs. $1.4645 on Tuesday. Traders were on pins and needles during the second day of Big Ben and Hammerin’ Hank’s hard sell to Congress about their proposed bailout plan.

Separately, in testimony prepared for the Joint Economic Committee, Bernanke said that risks of higher inflation and a serious downturn were both “significant” concerns, thus signaling that the Fed’s stance is essentially neutral toward future interest rate moves.

And the president got into the act last night, in an address to the nation in which he detailed, fairly accurately, how we got into this mess, then implored Americans to support the bailout or face truly dire consequences, saying that we can’t let the “irresponsible actions of some undermine the financial security of all.”

Somewhat disingenuously (?), Bush went on to say he regrets the “commitment of taxpayers’ hard-earned money” to this. Of course, there’s no taxpayer money left this year, so the cost will be covered by the printing press, thereby devaluing whatever money taxpayers have left in their wallets.

The day’s hard number was a bad one. The National Association of Realtors reported that resales of single family homes and condos cratered by 2.2% in August. Economists instead had been expecting a slight rise.

But the inventory of unsold homes on the market fell 7% — the biggest drop since December 2006, perhaps because the median sales price fell 9.5%, year over year.

Also hurting the euro was the closely-watched Ifo Institute’s German business climate index, which fell to 92.9 in September from a reading of 94.8 in August, far worse than economists’ expectations for a decline to only 94.0.

Source: Ben and Hank, Hank and Ben – Congress listens, fails to move. Bush begs a skeptical America to get on board.