Bernanke Yet Another Republican Who Puts His Party First
Ben Bernanke seems to be yet another clueless Bushite version who thinks his main responsibility is to protect the Republican Party at all costs.
At least he's acting that way putting American taxpayers on the hook....again.
As the inimitable Julian Santellis at Asia Times comments: "A condition called "Anterograde amnesia", caused by usage of psychotropic drugs and/or brain trauma, erases a person's memory of all events past a certain point. One wonders if chairman Bernanke was wolfing down a fistful of pills while getting whacked on the head with a two-by-four last Friday evening.
"He seems to have completely forgotten the stresses and strains that convulsed the financial markets over the weekend; more importantly, by proclaiming in the post-meeting statement, "Over time, the substantial easing of monetary policy, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate economic growth," he seems to be essentially denying the near certainty that these events will cross the flimsy and diaphanous barrier that separates trauma on Wall Street from causing similar displacements on America's, and indeed the world's, main streets.
"He seems to have completely forgotten the stresses and strains that convulsed the financial markets over the weekend; more importantly, by proclaiming in the post-meeting statement, "Over time, the substantial easing of monetary policy, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate economic growth," he seems to be essentially denying the near certainty that these events will cross the flimsy and diaphanous barrier that separates trauma on Wall Street from causing similar displacements on America's, and indeed the world's, main streets.
"The markets seemed to be sensing the threat; they went into the meeting debating whether there would be 25 or 50 basis point cuts in the key interest rates. On Bloomberg TV, the floor reporter at the New York Stock Exchange announced that the Fed's no-cut decision was met by howls of derision and protest; this from traders who in the spring and early summer were baying for Fed interest rate hikes as the only thing that could save the street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sold off over 100 points in the first few minutes after the decision, but then, surprisingly, rallied, closing up 141, back over 11,000, at 11,059.
",,,it wasn't as if Bernanke was, much like Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, channeling Great Depression-era US president Herbert Hoover in saying that the economy was "fundamentally sound". Far from it.
",,,it wasn't as if Bernanke was, much like Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, channeling Great Depression-era US president Herbert Hoover in saying that the economy was "fundamentally sound". Far from it.
"What was happening was that the global financial crisis was beginning to look like a videotape of an American automobile demolition derby run at very high speed, a veritable operatic, ever-more violent orgy of devastation, destruction and ruination. The time between, in which new victims of the crisis are being felled, is now being measured in hours - early last weekend Lehman, late in the weekend Merrill Lynch, late Monday and all day Tuesday, AIG, America's largest insurance company.
"Late in the afternoon, the other shoe dropped. The New York Times web site reported that the Federal Reserve was loaning $85 billion to AIG, a company that before today would not have been allowed even in the same time zone of the Fed's Discount Window, in exchange for an 80% equity stake in the company. Not only was the Fed loaning to an insurance company, it was buying an insurance company!
"I can just imagine it now. It's after dinner, and we're settling in for a quiet evening. There's a knock on the door, it's Ben Bernanke, pushing a fistful of brochures in my face.
" 'Mr Delasantellis, have you ever considered who would provide for your family if something happened to you?'
"I can just imagine it now. It's after dinner, and we're settling in for a quiet evening. There's a knock on the door, it's Ben Bernanke, pushing a fistful of brochures in my face.
" 'Mr Delasantellis, have you ever considered who would provide for your family if something happened to you?'
"What about the proud, moral stand of the Paulson Treasury, that capitalism would from now on be allowed to run its doleful course, and no institutions would further be considered too big to fail? I suppose that after the $700 billion in stock market equity wiped out on Monday, ethics and morals got thrown into the back seat and their mouths taped shut.
"The institution that had to be protected from failure now was Republican Party control of the US executive, a prospect that, even with Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's lackadaisical campaign, was being put very much into question with all this financial system turmoil.
"The institution that had to be protected from failure now was Republican Party control of the US executive, a prospect that, even with Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's lackadaisical campaign, was being put very much into question with all this financial system turmoil.
"But for Bernanke, one serendipitous benefit of Tuesday's events was the re-establishment of his total control over the Fed board. Like an old-time cowboy, he's got all his "little doggies" back into the pen.
"Still, if the choice was between the health of the economy and the restoration of Bernanke's authority, it seems that the economy got the nasty end of the stick.
"A Fed rate cut might not have done much; it might have only bolstered confidence a bit, but, to paraphrase Jackie DeShannon's 1965 pop song "what the world needs now is love", what the financial system needs now is confidence, sweet confidence - it's the only thing that there's just too little of."
"A Fed rate cut might not have done much; it might have only bolstered confidence a bit, but, to paraphrase Jackie DeShannon's 1965 pop song "what the world needs now is love", what the financial system needs now is confidence, sweet confidence - it's the only thing that there's just too little of."
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