Look at who paid for the signs.
Posted on 01/15/2013 5:23:41 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke criticized the debt ceiling as an unusual device that can be used to prevent the United States from paying it’s bills, as he suggested that the country would be better off if the debt limit did not exist.
“I think it would be a good thing if we didn’t have [the debt ceiling],” Bernanke told students at the University of Michigan today. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it’s going to be around.” Those remarks put Bernanke in agreement with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who has said that Congress should eliminate the debt ceiling.
The conversation began when Bernanke was asked if the debt ceiling had any “practical value” as a matter of fiscal policy. “No, it doesn’t really have — it’s got symbolic value, I guess, but . . . no other countries in the world have this particular institution,” he said.
“If the Congress is approving spending and it’s approving taxing, and those two things are not equal,” Bernanke continued, “the way to addres it is by having a sensible plan for spending and a sensible plan for revenue and make decisions about how big the government should be or how small it should be.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Bernanke and Geithner have never run their own household, apparently. And they are the smarts to lead this country.
Figures. What an ass.
Get rid of Bernanke and don’t replace Geithner. Bernanke is a detriment to this nation’s economy and our lives, but then so is the moronic, communist phony who has taken up residence in what is now the White Hut.
Interesting. Members of the same crowd who believes we should limit magazine capacities and number of gun purchases per month. Spending limits, regardless of revenue, however, are arbitrary.
Bernacke and Geithner will be remembered as the most disastrous individuals ever to be appointed to high office. Whwn confronted with $11 trillion dollars of debt, continued deficit spending of $3 billion dollars a day, huge unfunded liabilities, and a declining less productive economy, they instituted policies and financial gimmicks that combined with Obama’a malfeasance assured the decline of America.
The FED is what has no practical value and should be done away with.
Of course it has no practical value if you continue to raise it every time. Treasury issue the bonds and the Fed pays for them with freshly printed dollars.
“If the Congress is approving spending ...”
There’s your mistake Mr. Bernanke. Congress has not seen a budget bill since 2009 thanks to the despicable dems in the senate.
Ben, I’m sure you told the cops the handcuffs weren’t necessary and have no practical value.
Likely the officer told you, “We have this policy for a reason, and the cuffs STAY!”
Bernake, another in a long list of puppets that need be purged.
Bernanke is right for once. This whole “debt ceiling” thing is a charade, giving politicians air time and the chance to engage in live theatre.
No, assclown, it's a device designed to cut up Fedzilla's credit cards.
“If the Congress is approving spending and it’s approving taxing, and those two things are not equal,” Bernanke continued, “the way to addres it is by having a sensible plan for spending and a sensible plan for revenue and make decisions about how big the government should be or how small it should be.”
Also correct, however we do not have politicians who are interested in such decisions... and it may very well be that we have a large percentage of politicians who WANT to "reset" this nation, by tanking its economy. They are protected by a media that are not interested in the "size of government" question, because they want to be a part of the control mechanism of this nation, and they know that those who want HUGE government are those who will use them to maintain that control. Their vested interested are massive, and yet their main supporters are taught that those greedy limited-gvernment folk are the actual problem. (Ironic, no?)
What we have is a political class that is in the same exact boat as China's authoritarian rulers. As long as enough people can be pacified with money, and as long as those who are opposed are kept separate, unsure, castigated, and unarmed, then those in power can remain there indefinitely, and seek ways to gain more power on the world stage.
Benanke is further proof that assuming academics have ‘special knowledge’ that is practically applicable is nonsense. We would be way, way better off if we had a moratorium on government involvement by those from the Ivies. We are most definitely not diverse enough when it comes to educational background in government.
Yes, that's what a BUDGET is for. Tell the senate to do one.
THEN we can talk debt ceiling.
Gosh...what a brilliant idea! Why...it might even be a good idea to have a budget to follow, as required by the Constitution. But then, this President could care less about the Constitution and Congress under Harry Reid hasn't had a budget in the last three years. Laws...schmals...who needs 'em. Obozo's plan is to run the country by Executive Order anyway, so who needs a House and Senate? Dictatorships are much easier, right?
““No, it doesn’t really have — it’s got symbolic value, I guess, but . . . no other countries in the world have this particular institution,” he said.”
What else doesn’t any other country have, Ben?
~The World’s Reserve Currency.
Does Ben think that the rest of the world who has accepted diminishing returns on their massive dollar holdings will continue to hold dollars if we can just pretend there is no end to printing fiat?
Perhaps he does. There IS that little matter of open-ended QE.
“no other countries in the world have” 16.3 trillion dollars of debt.
Congress has a right to control the purse. If there is no practical value because the USG must pay its bills then how far does that extend? We have over $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities in the form of Medicare and SS. This does not include Obamacare and Medicaid. These programs are not engraved in stone. They can and must be changed or they will consume the entire federal budget. How much debt will it take to get Bernanke's attention?
When we raise the debt limit, we are forecasting what additional debt is needed to pay our bills. The limits we set will and should affect program changes.
A: Not Ben.
It's coming folks, prepare accordingly...
5.56mm
Yes 0dumbo is making an argument for the repubs [who won't even make an argument on their own.]
The reason we require a budget is to avoid committing too much money that will subsequently result in a needed debt ceiling increase.
So dammit, require a passed budget BEFORE any debt ceiling talks. Just damn! It isn't that hard!!
RNC called last night and I let him have it, politely. No way in hell am I going to give to the Rs who just don't fight for me. I did tell him that if the Tea Party ever organizes a TPNC and calls that my checkbook will be open...
Bernanke was appointed Fed Chairman by President George W. Bush. He was a major contributor to the Bush legacy of deficit spending and financial irresponsibility. Geithner was appointed President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during the Bush administration. He began his career at Kissinger Associates (remember Henry Kissinger and the Nixon administration?).
As bad as Obama’s economic policies are, some key players in this drama were put on stage by Republicans, not Democrats. The blame for this economic disaster belongs to both parties.
The appropriations power, granted to the House of Representatives by the Constitution, gives Boehner and the Republican House the ability to fix this mess anytime they choose. They can simply pass a responsible balanced budget and debt ceiling bill and then go home. If Reid’s Senate does not pass the budget, the government is not funded and the fault lies with the Senate. If the Senate passes and the president vetoes, the shutdown is his fault. Bernanke and the Fed have absolutely no Constitutional authority in the debt ceiling and spending debate. The fact the House does not use its power and acquiesces to Harry Reid’s refusal to pass a budget suggests the Republicans are happy with the current situation.
Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Bernanke, and Geithner are all irresponsible. They are enabled by the Republicans. It is long past time for Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans to use the appropriations power to do the responsible thing. Our founding fathers would be shocked to see the people’s House failing to check the tyranny of the Senate and the Executive. Why the absence of responsible behavior by the Speaker and his majority?
Yet most all of them in congress have voted for continuing resolutions to keep kicking the can down the road.
Get rid of the debt ceiling? No, get rid of Bernanke: he has no practical value.
Well played adorno.
If the Dems win the house in ‘14 this will happen ten minutes after Pelosi takes the gavel.
I think that is why the treasury recently shot down the idea of the trillion dollar platinum coin.
Why collect taxes?
“United States from paying it’s bills”
wwe are so screwed if the “journalists” can’t use contractions correctly. Should be “its” bills dummies
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/its.html
First, Bernanke and Geithner had zero to do with the continued deficit spending. That was all Congress and Obama.
Second, both Geithner and Bernanke were absolutely masterful in guiding us through the financial crisis of 2007-08. You might not like TARP and the other things they did at the time but they were the right things to do and they worked. Bernanke has also done a great job through accommodative monetary policy which is the exact right prescription for the massive asset deflation we have been experiencing over the last 4 years.
We have huge fiscal issue that will cause a financial collapse in the future if not addressed. But those were caused by our pathetic Congress (GOP and Dems alike) and our radical socialist president not Geithner and Bernanke.
“If the Dems win the house in ‘14 this will happen ten minutes after Pelosi takes the gavel.”
LOL! If they do take the house, your assets will belong to the FSA in less than five.
Bernanke says it has a symbolic value... since it has been raised every time we bump up against it (by both parties controlling Congress) he’s right. Congress will raise it again in February. It accomplishes nothing and is meaningless.
“If the Congress is approving spending ....”
The problem is indexed entitlements that put spending increases on autopilot. Let’s get rid of indexation, and also the concept of “entitlement,” and make ALL spending subject to the annual budget process.
The working model for this, and a perfectly sensible first step, would be the recent Republican proposal to block grant Medicaid and turn it over to the states.
A trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon we’re talking real money.
And the enslavement of our posterity.
At least that bit of posterity that we haven’t paid the abortionists to slaughter.
We’re witnessing a slow-motion national suicide, economically and physically.
Bernanke to Congress: Do your job, Pay the Bills
by Bill McBride on 1/14/2013 05:35:00 PM
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was very clear. The “debt ceiling” is about paying the bills, not about new spending. He urged congress to do their job, raise the debt ceiling, and pay the bills. His preference was to abolish the “debt ceiling” since it is redundant.
From the WSJ: Bernanke Calls on Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling
“It’s very, very important that Congress take the necessary action to raise the debt ceiling to avoid the situation where the government doesn’t pay its bills,” said Mr. Bernanke ... “Raising the debt ceiling gives the government the ability to pay its existing bills–it doesn’t create new spending,” he said.
At another point, Bernanke said the “debt ceiling” has “symbolic value”, but he prefers eliminating it. He was very clear that Congress should do their job and raise the debt ceiling.
Bernanke also expressed concern about the long run sustainability of the debt (over decades), but that we also shouldn’t cut the deficit too quickly and impact the “fragile recovery”. He thought the fiscal cliff deal would subtract about 1.5% from GDP this year.
CR Note: As I’ve noted before, the “debt ceiling” sounds virtuous, but it is really just about paying the bills. Not paying the bills is reckless and irresponsible.
By stalling, Congress is scaring people and is probably already negatively impacting the economy. Congress should do their job. Today. I remain confident Congress will authorize paying the bills, but this delaying is embarrassing.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/01/bernanke-to-congress-do-your-job-pay.html#5zBbhrQKq2cDXoAF.99
Look at who paid for the signs.
Since it’s never been enforced, in my memory, it has no practical value.
Geithner wasn't the Treasury Secretary in 2007-8. TARP was pushed by Bush and Paulson. So was the auto bailout. I don't consider the handling of the fiscal crisis to be masterful. It is just more kicking the can down the road and bailing out the big banks and insurance companies. Instead of being held accountable, the taxpayer picked up the tab. The huge Porkulus bill and increased spending has led to an additional $6 trillion being added to the national debt in four years. We will pay a fearful price for this "masterful handling" of the fiscal crisis.
The Fed has exceeded its authority and is operating without the proper oversight and control. Holding interest rates artificially low is helping to debase our currency and will eventually lead to the rest of world going to a different reserve currency. Once that happens, Goodbye USA, Hello Weimar Republic.
Bernanke is looking more like Karl Marx every day. Coincidence? I think not.
So, NOW he admits it. What a lot of people already knew.
Hope Bernanke and Geithner watch out...especially for the 'under the bus' thingy.
Or is this all an Obama plan?
I trust none of them.
I never said Geithner was Sec Tres. He was head of the NY Fed and was instrumental in arranging the "marriages" of many of the banks. He worked extremely closely with Paulson and was part of the team to come up with TARP.
So was the auto bailout.
Never said I agreed with the auto bailout...
It is just more kicking the can down the road and bailing out the big banks and insurance companies. Instead of being held accountable, the taxpayer picked up the tab.
you do realize that if the government had let all the banks and insurance companies go the "Great Recession" would have been thousands of times worse right? The impact of the huge amount of derivatives would have wiped out many trillions more of wealth (of you and me not just banks) and the global economy would have completely collapsed. Credit markets would have frozen for years. It would have made the Great Depression look like a mild dip. Oh and the vast majority of TARP finds have been repaid.
The huge Porkulus bill and increased spending has led to an additional $6 trillion being added to the national debt in four years. We will pay a fearful price for this "masterful handling" of the fiscal crisis.
Again this was Obama and Congress not Bernanke and Geithner and I agree that the Porkulus bill was a disaster.
Holding interest rates artificially low is helping to debase our currency and will eventually lead to the rest of world going to a different reserve currency.
We are still in a very slow recovery so low rates is the proper mechanism. Raising rates now would choke off what little growth their is and make the fiscal situation worse. It is interesting that despite the "massive debt problem" that the "flight to safety" remains UST's...
What would have been the impact on "your kids" had the financial sector, through the wiping out of trillions of dollars of derivatives, been allowed to fail and not "bailed out by TARP which has been substantially repaid in full?
I agree with you on the "half-baked Keynsian policies' and have never said otherwise. Again, that was all Obama and Congress. If you don't believe in Keynesianism what sort of economics do you believe in and what is the proper response to a deflationary spiral? TIA.......
If it has no practical value, why go to the trouble of changing it?
The practical value of the debt limit is undermined by a Fed Chairman (Bernanke) who is perfectly willing to buy government generated debt with out limit and monetize it. If he got what he deserved, Bernanke would be hauled out and hung by a mob of hard-working Americans (not to mention their children), from whom he is stealing on a massive scale.
There’s a debt ceiling on my credit card. There was a debt ceiling on how much I could borrow to buy my house. Any lending institution will place a limit on how much a borrower can borrow.
Our debt ceiling is our country’s self-imposed credit limit. It forces our government to address the question of how much borrowing is prudent. It requires legislation to be changed. It is a braking mechanism for our expansion of debt.
Our big-spending administration is having a fit over this barrier to their spending. Obama lies when he says increasing the debt spending won’t increase spending.
We already have more than enough debt. Every available means needs to be used to avoid or at least minimize further increases.
So TARP was a good idea?
you do realize that if the government had let all the banks and insurance companies go the "Great Recession" would have been thousands of times worse right? The impact of the huge amount of derivatives would have wiped out many trillions more of wealth (of you and me not just banks) and the global economy would have completely collapsed. Credit markets would have frozen for years. It would have made the Great Depression look like a mild dip. Oh and the vast majority of TARP finds have been repaid.
Those were the fear tactics used to bail out those too big to fail. It helped stampede Congress into signing on to it. It is so easy to make those statements just like stomping my foot in my living room in VA keeps the elephants away. TARP After Three Years: It Made Things Worse, Not Better
TARP Inspector General: TARP was a Failure
Again this was Obama and Congress not Bernanke and Geithner and I agree that the Porkulus bill was a disaster.
Geithner supported the Porkulus bill and wanted to make it even bigger. The idea that you can separate Obama and Geithner in terms of policy is nonsense. And it was passed by a Dem-controlled Congress with almost no Rep votes. It was rammed down our throats just like Obamacare. Both Obama and Geithner claimed that Porkulus saved millions of jobs and was key to getting us out of the fiscal crisis.
We are still in a very slow recovery so low rates is the proper mechanism. Raising rates now would choke off what little growth their is and make the fiscal situation worse. It is interesting that despite the "massive debt problem" that the "flight to safety" remains UST's...
The interest rates are being held artificially low. With our huge and growing federal debt, when interest rates return to their historical norm of 4% to %5, our debt servicing costs will increase exponentially overnight.
The artificially low rates are not helping growth and they mask our serious debt problem. They are also causing the devaluation of the dollar and undermining the dollar as the world's reserve currency.
It is interesting that despite the "massive debt problem" that the "flight to safety" remains UST's...
Right now the Fed is buying 70% of our T-bills. China has decreased its holdings. The SSTF holds the greatest amount of T-bills--around $2.7 trillion. The Fed holds about $2.1 trillion. $11.4 trillion is held publicly with the foreign owned portion being around $5.4 trillion. China has actually decreased its holdings of T-bills.
You can take solace that investments in T-bills is the best options compared to all the other options, but the reality is that none of these options are good and the whole global economy will collapse like a house of cards once the dollar does its inevitable swan dive. We are headed the way of Greece.
The house shares the blame. ya, budget die in the senate.
The house keeps passing CR’s.
shut it down.
He’s right though. And while we’re at it, or rather, while Obama’s at it, “we” don’t matter anymore, I say, while Obama’s at it, he should get rid of the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and all state and local governments. If it takes all that to get rid of the BCS, it might be worth it.
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