Dems are loving that the Fed / Bernanke are the focus of GOP attacks - Barney Frank is once again moving his finger in the direction opposite of where the skeletons are buried (CRA / "home ownership society" / Fannie-Freddie-FHA-HUD / Carter-Clinton-Andrew Cuomo-Barack Obama-Barney Frank-Christopher Dodd-Franklin Raines-Jamie Gorelick-etc-etc) and Republicans are following its every turn. He tested that with the "Republican repeal of Glass-Steagall was the reason for financial meltdown" and it was sad to see how many people were losing focus and buying it, too.
We should stop reflexively helping make Bernanke / the Fed a scapegoat as "the root of all financial evil" - they didn't create the debt and deficit spending or the policy of "competitive devaluation" of USD$ of the last 10 years, the politicians in Congress and White House did.
Bernanke is just the messenger of the bad news, and is actually trying to keep the economy afloat by not repeating the mistakes of 1930's Great Depression and now the two "Lost Decades" of Japan, Inc. Let's not engage in "shooting the messenger"
Here's what Bernanke / the Fed are trying to do, faced with and despite the reckless, irresponsible borrowing and spending sprre of the fiscal policies of last decade, especially in its second half:
To see what Bernanke is trying to do to prevent double dip and asset deflation death spiral, follow the link inside this post:
"http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2624051/posts?page=22#22" - FR, 2010 November 10
... monetary policy has suddenly become a turkey. In ordinary times, nobody has much of an opinion on monetary policy -- beyond Fed staffers, wonks and professional bond investors. For heated discussion on the finer points, you have to tune into CNBC or sift through impenetrable papers at academic conferences.
But these days, monetary policy is lighting up Facebook and talk radio. In a recent speech, Sarah Palin showed she's a Mama Grizzly Bear, not a Mama Grizzly Bull. "All this pump priming will come at a serious price," she said, complaining about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's latest plans to lower interest rates and boost the economy ..."The weak dollar -- a direct result of the Fed's decision to dump more dollars onto the market -- is pushing oil prices upward."
Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, piled on. "With all due respect, U.S. policy is clueless." When President Obama arrived in India, his host, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, heartily endorsed Bernanke's latest gambit. "Anything that would stimulate the underlying growth and policies of entrepreneurship in the United States would help the cause of global prosperity."
What's going on? This is monetary policy, not something vital to the future of the world, like, say, who gets kicked off "Dancing with the Stars." Having exhausted its ability to lower short-term interest rates, the Federal Reserve is acting to lower longer-term interest rates by buying assets like Treasury bonds. The central bank is making money available on easier terms by conjuring up and deploying quantities of cash -- which is why they call it quantitative easing. Given some of the actions the Fed has taken in the past two years, this is pretty tame stuff.
So why is it raising hackles from Wasilla to Wittenberg? Three reasons. (Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Agreed. The CRA is the root of the evil, not "de-regulation".
I hope Boehner-McConnell can see what's going on and agree on strategy.
It won't be easy because so many conservatives have swallowed lies about the financial system.
I’ll give it an objective read, but I’m afraid that my opinion of Bernanke is pretty firm and dismal. He comes across as a brown nosing bureaucrat..a ‘Wesley Mouch’ type character(i.e. Atlas Shrugged). Thanks for the link.