My avid readers will already know that I think the secretary of the treasury, Geithner, needs to go….he has not done anything but help those that have caused the meltdown….time for him to depart…..
This post is about Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, personally I think he should do us all a favor and resign….yes I have my reasons…….
In my opinion…he was dumb to the fact that a economic tsunami was approaching back in 2008….he kept telling us all that the economy was fundamentally sound….he was caught with his pants down….he has done fairly well since the crash…but my confidence is not ther any longer…
The faculty of Univ, of MO-KC have an excellent post:
When first nominated as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke promised a greater degree of transparency than his predecessor, but has completely stonewalled anybody seeking to obtain clarification of the events surrounding the credit crisis and more specifically, the role of the Federal Reserve. Any information disclosed would have facilitated a proper assessment of Bernanke’s job performance (which is probably one of the reasons the Fed chairman doesn’t want it released) and, more importantly, would have created a foundation for useful forensic work to prevent recurrences going forward.
The Fed chairman claims unique expertise on the grounds of his scholarship of the Great Depression. Few have actually challenged him on the basis of these academic credentials, yet Bernanke holds these out as if they are manifest proof of his appropriateness for the position as head of the Federal Reserve. Ironically, even though Bernanke drew heavily on the work of both Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz for his own scholarship of the period, Ms Schwartz herself has been enormously critical of the Fed’s conduct both pre-crisis and in seeing providing liquidity as the primary solution. She also warned explicitly against drawing comparisons between the gold standard era Depression and now. Additionally, Bernanke’s reading of the Depression (which is pretty conventional, that the Fed blew it by not providing more liquidity) ascribed little significance to fiscal policy, which has led Bernanke toward wrongheaded “solutions” such as “quantitative easing” and an alphabet soup of lending facilities, none of which did anything to enhance aggregate demand. Consistent with that, the Fed chairman been on the wrong side of fiscal policy, urging the Congress to balance the budget, at least longer term, which suggests that he learned nothing of the fiscal successes of the New Deal.
Bernanke’s consistent advocacy of “quantitative easing” perpetuates the silly notion that the Fed has had something to do with the economic “recovery” (a line which Time Magazine had readily embraced in its selection of the Fed Chairman as “Person of the Year”). He has ascribed little importance to the existence of the automatic stabilizers and indeed has persistently fed the misguided notion that the Federal government had limited fiscal resources.
The Fed chairman continues to demonstrate a tremendous conceptual confusion at the heart of the current crisis, particularly in regard to the banking sector. He actively supported TARP on the grounds that repairing the banks balance sheets would somehow “unblock” credit flows and thereby enhance economic activity. The whole notion of repairing bank balance sheet is a lie and misdirection. The balance sheets we should want to see repaired are household balance sheets. Banks have failed us profoundly. We want them reorganized, not repaired. This will never happen as long as this apologist for Wall Street remains head of the Fed. A world in which the banks are all fixed but households are still broken is worse than what we have right now. Too-big-to-fail banks restored to health are too-big-to-fail banks restored to power. The idea that fixing legacy banks is prerequisite to fixing the broad economy is a lie perpetrated by, amongst others, the Federal Reserve Chairman.
The critique above is about the best analysis I have seen on the performance of Bernanke…..and I agree….it is thime for him to GO!
Unfortunately, he will be reconfirmed…why?….Wall Street wants him there….he is their best friend for now…….and we ALL know how much influence Wall Street has bought over the years….so yes, Irene, he will return as the head of the Fed…….and the people wait!
An excellent piece of analysis. The truth is that nothing is likely to change significantly since the only way it could would be if banks were banks (money lenders), investment advisors were investment advisors, stockbrokers were stockbrokers and the rest of the gamblers were and did just that – gamble. None of them want that because they want to continue using other epople’s money to bet with.
There is nothing wrong with gambling – as long as you recognise the fact and are honest about it – banks should NOT be gamblers!
I agree…..those guys hit the nail on the head….an excellent piece of analysis……
Bernanke should really go. The only thing he has done was to pump freshly printed money into the banks that caused the mess. Then when it came to the stimulus (you know Joe’s bailout) he has refused to print money for that. It is pretty clear whose side that he is on.
I agree…..like I said he is just 1/3 of the problem in my opinion…..I have posted why I think Geithner should go and I am working on why Summers should go……new, fresh thinking is needed in Washington and these guys are old guard….
Actually, since business and finance truly began to go “global” thirty odd years ago, I think there are a lot of similarities between the climate change debate and the financial markets – it’s the height of arrogance for ant individual country to even pretend it can control things.
It’s my belief that, sooner or later, we will have to see some kind of world government and we’ll not benefit from any sort of real control over things until we do.
The saddest thing is that, governments being governments and politicians being the assholes they are, if the human race does ever manage a degree of world government, we’re all going to be in the shit anyway…
Life’s a bitch, eh? 😈
Do you think that the world’s population would accept a single world government? I do not….too many egos at play…..
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