I told him to cut 50 last time. But nooo, he had to cut 25 and babble about inflation. Now he looks like the biggest idiot to hit Washington since the Carter administration. He should just be allowed to quietly resign to spare himself more public humiliation. That said, I frankly don't see what is so wrong with the economy that in the space of a week or so, suddenly we have to piss away 150 billion in stimulus giveaways. Like Ron Paul said regarding our foreign policy, we can't afford it. It's one thing to cut taxes in a manner that stimulates economic growth and therefore is self-financing. Just giving away money is the worst method and in fact was what got Bernanke the Helicopter nickname. If the government is determined to throw away money, they would be better off to use it to buy up some subprime paper.
While I think the FED should have been more aggressive in cutting rates, I don't think Bernanke was terrible given the data he had in front of him. He was too catious, that is clear. But one has clear indications that Greenspan was far too loose, and that is clear. Somewhere in between the two is the sweet spot, and probably the key is not how fast you cut rates, but how fast you take them back. Let me put it to you this way, the rest of the ENTIRE PLANETs central banks, who were starering at far greater implosions of their markets than we were/are, didn't lift a finger today on their rates. Now, one may say that makes them even bigger morons than Bernanke (other peoples words, not mine), but I challenge anyone to give me a real explanation of that fact. nitro
Ok, heres one. There is a major liquidity crunch happening world wide, yet other CB's are so worried about their inflation that they refuse to budge even when their markets are imploding and trillions evaporate over night.
AAA...........if ben listens to you we'll have $40 wonder bread in a couple of years............bread, cheese, milk will all be luxury items......stagflation is worse than deflation
Ok genius, which would have been better, cutting more last meeting and at least not being so obviously behind the curve or making a panic cut today in response to falling stock markets? He has given us the worst of both worlds. No one has any confidence in him or the Fed. To the extent inflation fears are warranted, we are really screwed now because we are going to keep getting rate cuts plus an idiotic stimulus package. Since Bernanke let things get out of hand, none of these measures is likely to do much good. His best move now is to resign "to spend more time with his family." He will never have any credibility and the next president will replace him the second his term is up, as they should.
You know it alls make it seem like his job is easy. The Dow would have crashed today if not for the emergency cut. I am supporting todays cut for what it was worth, inflation or not. I never said I agreed with the way he played his cards over the previous months nor do I approve of him or his predecessor as FED chairmen. Clearly you were all short and wanted the markets to crash today so you could make the "big one". Just admit it and stop trying to pretend like you really care about inflation.
BAD POLICY... one day, inflation will destroy the buying power of your money and you'll wish you'd never heard of the word... INFLATION is a BIG DEAL... a really, REALLY big deal.... one day, many of us will be living under the viaduct and sharing a can of cold pork-n-beans with a stranger because of it.
True, unless policy changes... no sign of that here. It won't occur overnight, nor even in the next 10 years... just a steady degredation of financial condition over the next 30-50 years... until the US "owes everybody with no intention to ever repay"... and is nothing more than a big burned-out cinder of a 3rd world financial regime.