GEORGE CHAMBERLIN has been associated with The Daily Transcript at SDDT.com since 1998 and became Executive Editor in 2006. He is responsible for the development of editorial strategies for the newspaper and website. He has introduced video and audio into the editorial products and is the public face of the company at many community events. George regularly chairs industry roundtables and conducts video interviews of participants for use on the San Diego Source. He writes two daily columns, "Money in the Morning" and a daily stock market wrap-up.

George, a long time resident of North County, lives in Vista with his wife Terry.

After a volatile 2011 on Wall Street, things have been pretty darned quiet so far this year. To be sure, the bar has been higher with the Dow Industrials up nearly 4.5 percent for the month despite a slight loss of 22 points yesterday. Unless things fall apart with just three trading sessions remaining in January we should post a positive return, a good omen for the rest of the year. FYI, in the 17 trading sessions so far in January only one time as the Dow posted a triple-digit move. That was the first day of trading for the new year, Jan. 3, when the index was up 180 points.

The report on Friday from the Department of Commerce showing the nation’s gross domestic product — the sum total of all goods and services produced in the United States — rose by just 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 may have been a surprise to some analysts but not for the members of the Federal Reserve Board.

"Hi, I'm Ben Bernanke from the Federal Reserve Board and I'm here to help you." Those are words that would often scare people, but yesterday they sparked a mini-rally on Wall Street. After the close of a two-day meeting of the Fed's open market committee, a statement was issued painting their perception of the current economy, saying, "Household spending has continued to advance, but growth in business fixed investment has slowed, and the housing sector remains depressed." So, to make sure the creeping recovery continues, the Bernanke bunch decided current conditions "are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014." That is an extension of the Fed's previous guidance, which anticipated low rates through mid-2013.