He's got my vote. He tells the American People with a straight face that inflation is contained, U.S. policy supports a strong U.S. Dollar, while he cuts interest rates (to no good effect), causing the dollar to plunge, inflation to surge, and then he adds insult to injury by using taxpayer dollars to inject hundreds of billions of printing press cash to try and rescue institutions holding bad mortgage debt and CDOs. Who has yours and why?
Not true. Benanke NEVER said that inflation was contained. There has always been concern over inflation from the outset There are limitations to what Central Bankers can accomplish in times like these. He is doing an EXCELLENT job in difficult circumstances. Anyway, the markets have a way of sorting these things out.
My vote goes to all the whiners bitching about how the Fed is blind or corrupt, the markets are rigged, how the dollar is imploding or how gasoline is getting too expensive. Wall Street is open every business day so we all can place the proper trades to cover our asses. Don't like the dollar? Go long GBP EUR CHF and hedge your portfolio. Think Oil will goto $150 a barrel? Go long CL futures. Think inflation is really 20% monthly rather than 0.2%? Go short TY futures. Blaming Bernanke for everything is plain ridiculous.
I respectfully disagree with you. Bernanke is interfering with the markets when he injects liquidity (i.e. taxpayer money) into the the banking and mortgage markets. He is impeding the ability of the markets to 'sort things out.' He also has stated on many occasions that the fed expects inflation to 'moderate' and remain 'contained'. And why would he keep lowering interest rates when the dollar is already in free fall, and when the previous rate cuts have had little or no effect? Interest rates are already low, and are not the problem - lending standards were - so lowering them further does no good, and only risks creating higher inflation and a devalued currency domestically.
Bernanke is doing exactly what he must do! Like when Bush said during his run for re-election, the rich can hire fancy lawyers to get around paying their taxes. So he decided to cut the taxes that they weren't paying anyway. That way the transfer is more efficient. Inflation is good for you! Ask those who do the inflating and you will see why it is so important to inflate the money supply. It is only by diminishing your purchasing power can we truly prosper!
Just bankers and kings scratching each others backs. Nothing new here. Read Franklin. The central banking system and the taxation that enslaves people was the primary cause of the revolution. America had a pretty good run back in the day, but here we are not too many years later, and not only do we have the central banking system again, but most people are working 4 months a year free as slaves. We need more people like Franklin now more than ever.
were there colonial equivalents to the maklodas and stock terders? it would be interesting to read the rhetoric of colonial loyalists who resisted the american revolution and defended an abusive status quo basically makloda, you're saying systemic inflation is ok because every american has the ability to hedge our economy with futures and currencies..
"He also has stated on many occasions that the fed expects inflation to 'moderate' and remain 'contained'." He wasn't lying. He was only speaking personally and for the Central Bank when he said that... As for the rest... oh well......
It's clear that looking at the numbers the Fed shouldn't have done anything on Sept the 18th. Employment is still chugging along nicely and the GDP is very healthy. The people who were hurting DESERVED to be hurt including the Wall St Financial houses. The Market would have been FORCED to work it things out and we would have been 'on the up' by now. I can't believe in takes a correction of only 10% on the S&P to get the Fed to freak out and cut rates 75 bp at least. What a bunch of gutless capitalists you have there in the USA! (You can't take even a little bit of financial pain)