I see a lot of attacks to Bernanke and his QE, a lot of talk about bubbles he creates. While I don't like QE at all and see it as a way of worsening the situation,I must admit that it "buys time". I believe that the economic situation is falling down by itself, I don't see someone in particular to blame for this, and I think no institution can fix it. So I ask: what else Bernanke should do? All those throwing shit at him, what would they do in his place? He can't let crisis unfold (even if he though that would be the best thing), otherwise people would blame him for having done nothing, as they do in Europe. People want action against problems, so the only thing to do is throwing money in the market. Note also that: - He's not alone in deciding these matters, there are all local FED presidents which generally agree except for one or two; - If you think that stock and bond markets are in bubble,compare them with nasdaq in 2000 and japan bonds in the last 10 or 20 years So, all the people criticizing Bernanke, please tell what he has to do.
About time he laid it out clearly that the useless politicians are over spending imo but then they have to to get elected - so the system is broken and should be changed. It can't cope with today's problems. Democracy ( plutocracy ) is stuffed.
The Fed should be nationalised and independent of the politicians. With a chairman who will stand up to the politicians.
I'm on a totally different page. 1) Every institution is and will always be dependent from politicians and also from power groups 2) The problems we have are intrinsic, not caused by politicians What do you mean with "nationalized"?
pfranz:So I ask: what else Bernanke should do? All those throwing shit at him, what would they do in his place? First he should state that after a decade or more of making the rich much richer, which didn't work, we should try making the poor richer. Then he should tender his resignation.
He should not have embarked on QE 2, certainly not QE infinity. He probably should have started normalizing back in 2010, now he 's in deep trouble. He should just recognize that there is only so much he and the Fed can do, but that would go against everything he has done in his academic career. He studied the 1930's and the way it could have been avoided, now like a scientist he's testing his theories on real living beings . Like scientists, economists want to push the boundaries of what is possible and play God, call it ego, the need to make his mark, to be special. What should he do ? He should say I have no godlike power I am just a technocrat, I could be replaced by a computer, actually you don't need, me I am resigning.
I mean owned by the State not by private concerns. BUT independent. So they can tell the politicians, not grovell to them like now. Then the Chairman should be appointed for a 5 year term by an equal Rep/Dem comittee. Put in charge of the regularity bodies etc. in other words have considerable clout. Poor Benny looks like a rabbit and acts like a rabbit.
To me the problem is not the thieves, the powerful which become more powerful. Yes they are a problem and a cost, but the real problem comes from EVERYONE trying to have more: people on an average have got increasing wealth in the last 50 years, and this can't go on forever. This is a problem of ALL mature economies:Japan,UK,US,Europe, so you can't say that Bernanke maneuvered all the world.
To me it's clear that if they embarked in QE2 and QE3 it was because they had to: it's like drug, when you stop you are destroyed. If you look at the data you see that the pace of "recovering" has remained the same,while stimulus has increased: exactly like drug. If they didn't do that I believe there would have been a collapse. I don't see any arrogance or ego: they put on the only "solution" they could see and tried to do their best. It could be that Bernanke thought he could fix up things with one or two rounds of QE, then get his money back. But it could also be that Bernanke knew that very probably it would go like it went, and hoped for the small possibility that he could fix things, given that THERE WAS NO ALTERNATIVE. This is not playing God at all, nor testing own theories on real humans.
We cannot agree, I will NEVER believe that there exist rules (5 year terms,putting in charge etc) that will stop power from influencing institutions.And I repeat: to me this is not the real problem. To get things in balance you need the right people, there are places in equilibrium (Switzerland for example) but they are generally small. I don't think a big country like US or Europe can remain in balance for long. But I haven't heard a plan yet, so I ask you all again. Suppose that we are in 2008, you have just become FED president and please describe the plan you would put in place to fix things.