A Gem of an Article About Our Financial Debacle
Julian Delasantellis has an interesting article in Asia Times on Ben Bernanke and the Fed rate cuts, the Bear Stearns fiasco, etc. and has gems of sentences and phrases that hit the target with humor and insight.
His article is titled, "Bernanke running out of bliss space" and here are a few of the jewels that inhabit the piece.
On Bernanke:
"Much like the children of the 1960s discovered with their particular paths to ecstasy, you probably can't achieve your state of bliss.....all that many times. Fed head Ben Bernanke probably can't, either. For him, the hash pipe essentially comes around to his lips every six weeks or so, with every Federal Reserve Board meeting. Two more hits, then Bernanke, and with him the rest of the world, will have to find a new way to stay eight miles high.
"Not even three months into it, and it's already been a busy time for Bernanke and his happy band of monetary minstrels.
The Economic Debacle:
"It is generally agreed that the US economy essentially rolled right off a cliff in mid-December 2007...."
The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis (a real diamond):
"..just continually calling it the "subprime crisis" fails to illustrate the real problem - what happened to the subprime mortgage paper when it got eaten by Wall Street's gaping maw, then expelled out the Street's backside and then sold to the investment world as fresh candy."
Surging Commodities Prices:
"Of course, all the surging commodity prices had, at their core, a common causation - the flight away from confidence and desire to hold wealth in the form of US dollars."
Bernanke and the Fed's Solutions:
"Also, as the early days of March arrived, it began to be seen that all the new monetary infusions the Fed was applying to the markets didn't seem to be doing all that much good.
"To a certain extent, it began to be seen that the Fed's traditional palliative for economic uncertainty, simply lowering interest rates to the system as a whole, was as if to deal with a house on fire at the bottom of the hill, the house at the top of the hill was doused in the hope that the water would roll down to where it was most needed."
Give it a read.
His article is titled, "Bernanke running out of bliss space" and here are a few of the jewels that inhabit the piece.
On Bernanke:
"Much like the children of the 1960s discovered with their particular paths to ecstasy, you probably can't achieve your state of bliss.....all that many times. Fed head Ben Bernanke probably can't, either. For him, the hash pipe essentially comes around to his lips every six weeks or so, with every Federal Reserve Board meeting. Two more hits, then Bernanke, and with him the rest of the world, will have to find a new way to stay eight miles high.
"Not even three months into it, and it's already been a busy time for Bernanke and his happy band of monetary minstrels.
The Economic Debacle:
"It is generally agreed that the US economy essentially rolled right off a cliff in mid-December 2007...."
The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis (a real diamond):
"..just continually calling it the "subprime crisis" fails to illustrate the real problem - what happened to the subprime mortgage paper when it got eaten by Wall Street's gaping maw, then expelled out the Street's backside and then sold to the investment world as fresh candy."
Surging Commodities Prices:
"Of course, all the surging commodity prices had, at their core, a common causation - the flight away from confidence and desire to hold wealth in the form of US dollars."
Bernanke and the Fed's Solutions:
"Also, as the early days of March arrived, it began to be seen that all the new monetary infusions the Fed was applying to the markets didn't seem to be doing all that much good.
"To a certain extent, it began to be seen that the Fed's traditional palliative for economic uncertainty, simply lowering interest rates to the system as a whole, was as if to deal with a house on fire at the bottom of the hill, the house at the top of the hill was doused in the hope that the water would roll down to where it was most needed."
Give it a read.
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