Posted on 04/02/2008 7:36:16 AM PDT by nicmarlo
WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the economy may shrink over the first half of this year, saying "a recession is possible." Yet, he didn't offer any assurances of further interest rate cuts.
Bernanke's testimony to the Joint Economic Committee was a much more pessistic assessment of the economy's immediate prospects amid a trio of crises — housing, credit and financial.
It now appears likely that gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," Bernanke told lawmakers. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is the best barometer of the United States's economic health. Under one rule, six straight months of declining GDP, would constitute a recession.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I think you missed the “sheep bait” that was dropped. On the directions it said: “To be used to create illusionary market rally. Spread evenly and dampen with b.s. Do not flood as it creates a strong objectionable odor.”
If I recall correctly, didn't the dims win in 2006 and aren't they now running Congress? Seems like this is Reid and Pelosi's fault now. Of course, the DBM will ignore that small fact.
Most everyone (some of us don’t)....but likely everyone in .gov, Wall Street, etc.
Common misconception. A recession is determined to have occurred after the fact by the National Bureau of Economic Research. After all the gov't revisions, in 2001 we had one quarter of negative economic growth. But we still had a recession because the NBER says we did.
But it is the president who appoints.
In any event, it truly matters little any longer which party “controls” Congress. There’s become less and less distinction between the two. And there are very few stand out patriots in elected office. In fact, at the top of my head, I can only think of a few. The rest are more concerned about the graft which lines their pockets from special interest groups and the corporate greedholders/lobbyists.
“There is NO economic news out that justifies any type of a rally.”
Yes, me too!
I sat on the sidelines scratching my head over yesterday...wanted to jump in, but the water didn’t feel right.
Oh yeah, the average schlub spending a few hundred bucks is going to fix the GDP.
Since when does our Gross Domestic Product consist of a trip to Circuit City? uuurrrrgghhhh Retards are running the asylum!
I firmly believe that these so called ‘experts’ just yak to hear themselves pontificate. The morons on the left whined about all the unqualified people that couldn’t get decent mortgages and mortgate rates. They convinced Congross to pass laws telling mortgage companies they HAD to offer a bunch of deadbeat losers mortgage rates so they could achieve the American Dream of home ownership...
Now, when the bills come due, these people are defaulting on their loans...oh, the horror!!! Now the US GUBMINT needs to bail these morons out of a problem of their own making...
I’ve been making house payments thru thick and thin since 1982 and haven’t missed one yet.
Too much house for too little income because the US GUBMINT will bail you out..
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Drill for our own oil, get regulation out of the market place, make tax cuts permanent and reduce them automatically...
I’m not an expert but I do know that when these idiots speak, idiots do idiotic things.
foflmao....since the brainiac economists said so.
Gee, no kidding? Better keep those printing presses fired up, Ben. Let’s make that money really worthless!
In early 1983, I wrote Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia
to ask about the redeemability of Federal Reserve
Notes. His reply arrived on March 11 and read (in
part) as posted below.
It would APPEAR that either:
1. Sam Nunn ACTUALLY gets it about what happens when man
(or certain men) play God with “money;”
2. Nunn DOESN’T get it — and some staffer sent this out
without actually READING it or running it by the boss (in
which case said staffer now works for the DC Sanitation
Department.
3. None of the above. Because nearly every American is an
economic illiterate, what possible harm could it do to send it?
In which case, you economic illiterates who read this will mutter
“So what?” and flip back to MTV.
In any event, for the edification of you non-economic illiterates
out there, here it is.
“Dear Richard:
Thank you for your letter requesting information on
redeemability of Federal Reserve Notes for lawful
money. I have enclosed information from the
Congressional Research Service that I hope will be of
assistance.”
The enclosure was 4 pages from something called
“The Gold Standard: Its history and record against
inflation. A Study prepared for the use of the
Subcommittee on Monetary and Fiscal Policy of the Joint
Economic Committee, Congress of The United States.” It
was printed September 18, 1981. I was sent only the
England and U.S. portions of the study. What they
revealed was most interesting. From the England study:
(Emphasis added)
“England has had 350 years of experience with
various forms of the gold standard. She first went on
the gold coin standard, de facto, in 1717. This was
done by Sir Isaac Newton, then Master of the Mint. It
was done by pricing gold at the mint more favorably,
relative to silver, than in the marketplace. An Act of
Parliament in 1816 gave formal recognition to this
‘new’ monetary standard that had been operational for a
century in promoting England to a world power.
“Between 1797 and 1821, England temporarily
suspended the gold standard because of the economic
disruptions of the Napoleonic Wars. With no gold
backing to the currency, the supply of money had no
discipline except that imposed by the Board of
Governors of the Bank of England (analogous to our Fed
of today).
The result was that wholesale commodity prices shot up
nearly 50% in 4 years-a momentous inflation.
The ‘Bullion Committee’ was formed by parliament
to investigate. Their findings read in part as follows:
‘The suspension of cash payments has had the
effect of committing into the hands of the Directors of
the Bank of England, to be exercised by their sole
discretion the immediate charge of supplying the
country with that quantity of circulating medium which
exactly proportioned to the wants and occasions of
the Public. In the judgment of the Committee, that is
a trust which it is unreasonable to expect that the
Directors of the Bank of England should ever be able to
discharge. The most detailed knowledge of the actual
trade of the Country, combined with the profound
Science in all principles of Money and circulation,
would not allow any man or set of men to adjust, and
keep always adjusted, the right proportion of
circulating medium in a country to the wants of trade.’
“Gold convertibility of the currency was resumed
in 1821. It is a matter of record that wholesale
prices came back down immediately to the level
preceding the hiatus in the gold standard.
“England was again off the gold standard between
1919 and 1925. When she resumed gold convertibility it
was on a gold bullion standard where she remained until
1931, when she went off the gold standard altogether in
the midst of the Great Depression.”
Under the United States, we find the following:
“The long period of the gold standard in the
United States was not an economic nirvana. The most
severe inflationary period reaching completion under
the gold standard was from 1897 to 1920. But from
trough to peak, the average annual compound rate
was 5.4%—mild by present experience. And most of this
occurred from 1914 to 1920 when the European war and
its aftermath bore so heavily on the domestic economy.
If we look at the period between 1897 and 1914, the
average annual rate of inflation was 2.6% — enviable
from the perspective of today.”
I guess they thought it was the body part that runs from the shoulder to the hand. Now the taxpayers will be stuck bailing their @$$e$$ out of than mess.
They have never heard of anything ADJUSTABLE??? How about a Crescent wrench? Just as a news blip for them, it can get
BIGGER
OR smaller.
IMF Cuts Global Forecast on Worst Crisis Since 1930s (Update5)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anChWnDU1_os&refer=home
By Shamim Adam
April 2
If people who made stupid decisions were held accountable for their actions....the Fed wouldn’t have bailed out Bear Stearns, and Bush wouldn’t be advising to bail out the home buyers.
There is already a system in place for morons: it’s called bankruptcy.
I agree with you on the bankruptcy. Let them sink and let everyone else continue to pay. My home should be paid off within two or three year.
Now I have to help pay for some idiot's decision to go into a debt he/she couldn't afford and should have in no way been qualified to assume such a loan.
Bernake is an a$$hole. I’m tired of these guys burping and causing the market to implode .Greenspan did the same thing and STILL can’t keep his mouth shut !
In early 1983, I wrote Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia
to ask about the redeemability of Federal Reserve
Notes. His reply arrived on March 11 and read (in
part) as posted below.
It would APPEAR that either:
1. Sam Nunn ACTUALLY gets it about what happens when man
(or certain men) play God with “money;”
2. Nunn DOESN’T get it — and some staffer sent this out
without actually READING it or running it by the boss (in
which case said staffer now works for the DC Sanitation
Department.
3. None of the above. Because nearly every American is an
economic illiterate, what possible harm could it do to send it?
In which case, you economic illiterates who read this will mutter
“So what?” and flip back to MTV.
In any event, for the edification of you non-economic illiterates
out there, here it is.
“Dear Richard:
Thank you for your letter requesting information on
redeemability of Federal Reserve Notes for lawful
money. I have enclosed information from the
Congressional Research Service that I hope will be of
assistance.”
The enclosure was 4 pages from something called
“The Gold Standard: Its history and record against
inflation. A Study prepared for the use of the
Subcommittee on Monetary and Fiscal Policy of the Joint
Economic Committee, Congress of The United States.” It
was printed September 18, 1981. I was sent only the
England and U.S. portions of the study. What they
revealed was most interesting. From the England study:
(Emphasis added)
“England has had 350 years of experience with
various forms of the gold standard. She first went on
the gold coin standard, de facto, in 1717. This was
done by Sir Isaac Newton, then Master of the Mint. It
was done by pricing gold at the mint more favorably,
relative to silver, than in the marketplace. An Act of
Parliament in 1816 gave formal recognition to this
‘new’ monetary standard that had been operational for a
century in promoting England to a world power.
“Between 1797 and 1821, England temporarily
suspended the gold standard because of the economic
disruptions of the Napoleonic Wars. With no gold
backing to the currency, the supply of money had no
discipline except that imposed by the Board of
Governors of the Bank of England (analogous to our Fed
of today).
The result was that wholesale commodity prices shot up
nearly 50% in 4 years-a momentous inflation.
The ‘Bullion Committee’ was formed by parliament
to investigate. Their findings read in part as follows:
‘The suspension of cash payments has had the
effect of committing into the hands of the Directors of
the Bank of England, to be exercised by their sole
discretion the immediate charge of supplying the
country with that quantity of circulating medium which
exactly proportioned to the wants and occasions of
the Public. In the judgment of the Committee, that is
a trust which it is unreasonable to expect that the
Directors of the Bank of England should ever be able to
discharge. The most detailed knowledge of the actual
trade of the Country, combined with the profound
Science in all principles of Money and circulation,
would not allow any man or set of men to adjust, and
keep always adjusted, the right proportion of
circulating medium in a country to the wants of trade.’
“Gold convertibility of the currency was resumed
in 1821. It is a matter of record that wholesale
prices came back down immediately to the level
preceding the hiatus in the gold standard.
“England was again off the gold standard between
1919 and 1925. When she resumed gold convertibility it
was on a gold bullion standard where she remained until
1931, when she went off the gold standard altogether in
the midst of the Great Depression.”
Under the United States, we find the following:
“The long period of the gold standard in the
United States was not an economic nirvana. The most
severe inflationary period reaching completion under
the gold standard was from 1897 to 1920. But from
trough to peak, the average annual compound rate
was 5.4%—mild by present experience. And most of this
occurred from 1914 to 1920 when the European war and
its aftermath bore so heavily on the domestic economy.
If we look at the period between 1897 and 1914, the
average annual rate of inflation was 2.6% — enviable
from the perspective of today.”
Even the IMF is chiming in....wow
Well...according to some...that’s only because the “us gods keep talking down the economy.” We have great powers, doncha know.
Wow....we’ve influenced the IMF. : )
ping
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