When will the recession "end"? Very, very soon, says a panel of economists. But isn't a "full recovery" years away? Yes, said former Fed chair Paul Volcker in his commencement speech at Brooklyn Law School.

Worst case scenario: The recession may recover while the recovery recedes.

Stay tuned for more wordplay today, when current Fed chair Ben Bernanke talks with the House Budget Committee. Bernanke is expected to echo Volcker, said Bloomberg.

But in his prepared remarks, according to this morning's Wall Street Journal, Bernanke notes that the debt is killing us, but he's sounding fairly optimistic. Or fairly gloomy.

"[R]ecent data . . . suggest that the pace of economic contraction may be slowing," his statement says. That doesn't mean that it has stopped contracting.

Volcker is much gloomier. Bernanke, though, doesn't sound any more or less opaque than most other Fed chairs (aside from Volcker). You read his statement and figure it out.

Great news for bankers, though. In his prepared remarks, Bernanke says the ability of banks to raise new capital "suggests that investors are gaining greater confidence in the banking system." We already know why that is: We saved the bankers, whether or not we should have done so.