Posted on 07/13/2008 12:31:36 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
The Psychology of Ben Bernanke:
The Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve. Was he Talking About the current Great Depression that is Sprouting Under his Watch?
Lessons From the Great Depression: Part XIII. The Federal Reserve.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week once again mentioned that the Federal Reserve was “strongly committed” to financial stability and is considering options like keeping the lending facilities open to primary dealers. In short, they are going to continue to bailout banks and Wall Street firms while Americans get the shaft. This is an important statement and the futures markets are now tenuous of any rate rises this year. After all, we are now firmly in a bear market with the three big index players, the DOW, S&P 500, and NASDAQ down 20+% from their recent peaks.
It is crucial to understand the psychology of Ben Bernanke in order to understand his motives in the current economic crisis. Bernanke is a student of the Great Depression and much of his belief is that the Federal Reserve was a main (if not primary) cause of exacerbating the problems at that time. He feels they didn’t react quickly and strongly to stem the economic collapse that soon followed. Yet many Americans aside from pop culture and what is the hot item at Wal-Mart don’t really have a sense of history. For example, many think that the Great Depression was purely caused by one bad month in October. That is not true, the bottom didn’t hit until years after. Also, many forget that we had a massive real estate bubble that occurred in the early to mid-1920s with Florida real estate looking similar to what is occurring again in the coastal states in particular, California and Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at doctorhousingbubble.com ...
That's my business, catalogs, direct mail, sales promotion materials and packaging. Mostly business to business, very little consumer direct. Other than packaging, it dropped like a rock at the start of the new year, strangest thing I've ever seen since I've been in business for myself. The only recent upside is some manufacturing being "repatriated" due to wildly escalating shipping container costs, meaning that there is some small increase in domestic sourcing for packaging. Other than that, my nearly 12 year old business is quite literally dead in the water. It makes me physically ill to dwell on it, so I try not to, but it gets to me when I'm trying to sleep.
I’m hoping that Foreign Enemies will be out in early 2008.....if I can finish the last 1/3 by about election time. (That way I’ll also be able to tailor the president’s character.)
I shudder to think if it's you-know-who. Actually, I shudder in either case, but "you-know-who" sends me directly to the Fainting Couch as well.
I would never have imagined this country would have such a miserable choice for President in what may be it's most crucial election for survival (well, maybe 1864 was as crucial, but at least in 1864 we had one decent candidate running).
It's as if this was well planned by the Devil himself.
It’s not surprising that the ‘87 stock market crash didn’t precipitate another Great Depression. The stock market crash of 1929 affected a small percentage of the American people and didn’t cause the Great Depression. The major factor was the collapse of over 30% of American banks from 1930-33 and the resulting deflation and scarcity of money.
Fed and Treasury officials are worried because of major problems in the banking and credit markets. The collapse of asset prices when a trillion dollars of loans go bad is a recipe for deflation.
“. But, folks, we have not had even one quarter of contraction, despite the so-called “housing problem.” “
I take it that you don’t travel to California.
“But didn’t the savings and loans get bailed out? Did that prevent a recession? “
S&L depositors were bailed out during GHW Bush’s Presidency, not S&Ls per se. A lot of S&L executives not only weren’t bailed out, many were convicted of fraud. The Resolution Trust Corporation was set up to sell off the assets of insolvent S&Ls.
Paying for the bailout did slow down the economy some. It was the basis of Bill Clinton making the economy the focus of his campaign.
At this point I’m betting on President Mogambo.
But I won’t write out President Jillian Whitman until after the election.
I am afraid the boys at the Federal Reserve are fighting fire with gasoline.
“I am afraid the boys at the Federal Reserve are fighting fire with gasoline.”
Yup, trapped.
No matter what they do there will be a heavy price to pay. A lengthy reduced standard of living for many is certain.
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