And wasn't congress and the senate during those years controlled by Republicans? You can't simply blame Clinton. Or what about the 1980s "bubble", fueled by M&A and junk bonds? The bubble that just recently popped by all accounts started with Reagan. Every politician is implicated in this mess, maybe their common denominator is who finances their election campaigns?
The Federal Reserve Act 1913, is a scam. Congress should take back control of the money supply, and create new measures to do the Private Central Bank's Job (The Fed) They made billions in the crisis they created, and untold billions that vanish to the (BIS) <---Google to learn more. 10 Trillion Debt to 12 Trillion Debt is a National Crime of High Treason!! Erase the Debt, and the interest to be repaid by going to WAR with the Central Bank the Federal Reserve. The time is now, or remain enslaved to the interest as they rise in paying this hyper inflated debt created by them only for them to create due harm on all American Citzens regardless of social class.
I wasn't blaming any political party myself, just clarifying that poorly thought out government policies have in most cases been the cause of massive economic failures throughout history. Policy changes to the CRA in 1994 is a good example. Why Bernanke gets blamed for something that began 10+ years before he got involved is disingenuous imo.
Nobody mentions Paulson's decision to let Lehman fail. That turned a bad situation into a full blown crisis. How come nobody here wants to blame anyone from the Bush administration?
Bernanke must have one of the worst jobs one can imagine. What does he make a year, 190k? And I take it that is gross, before taxes. Far too little IMO considering the amount of traveling, stress and insults he is exposed to.
I remember people were applauding Paulson, even here on ET. The applause didn't last very long, until it was clear global markets wouldn't stop their tailspin and suddenly Iceland, HypeReal and AIG went bust thanks to the chaotic nature of Lehman's demise. Paulson wanted to make an example out of Lehman, warning the rest of the financial world that they can't rely on bailouts. Only 72 hours later he changed his mind, which ended up in being the biggest bailout in the history of America. Oh well, at least he successfully took revenge on his old-time enemy in flushing Lehman's CEO Dick Fuld down the toilet. The most famous quote on ET must have been some guy saying "The ordinary Joe Average American won't even notice Lehman is gone, it is business as usual". In hindsight, the truth is probably when the history books are going to be written on this economic episode Lehman will go down as the Creditanstalt of our period.
What are you talking about insults... The man just got named Time person of the year for saving the world from another depression. Anyway, if he wants to get more bang for his buck he should raise interest rates.
Not true. This was the only "political" thing to do. The right thing would have been to let things crash & burn, which would have caused Merrill, Citi, AIG, MorganStanley, etc. to go under. The markets would have seen DOW 3000 too, and unemployment would have been double, what's currently stated. HOWEVER, we would have let market forces prevail, the strong companies would have survived, and new companies would have been born. All the shitty companies that Ben has kept around would be gone - now, with his plan, they all still exist, and he hasn't fixed a thing about their inherent business models, nor has Bush or Obama. All that's been done here, is to re-inflate the bubble to worse levels than we've seen, which means the next crash will be a lot harder than the one experienced last year. Bernanke's Plan was called "deferring the pain" by way of money printing. Things will get worse; maybe this year, or next year, or 5 years from now, but the results are very predictable.