Thanks David.

I am thrilled Ben finally figured out that (he and Paulson) giving $10 TRILLION to Wall Street in the form of loans, guarantees, and capital injections was a really bad idea. IT TAKES A PILLAGE

When is Ben going to get our money back?

Just to put that number into perspective, Joe Stiglitz thought back in 2008 that Iraq would cost $3 TRILLION. The trust fund for Social Security is about $2.6 trillion.

Go get ’em Ben!

U-shaped recovery

I think we’ll see this idea of a U shape recovery start to go away like the economy will near the end of May and continue to slide down until the end of the year. This still won’t be the bottom. Think 3rd world and that what the new Amerika will look like. Sad.

Ben we are a consumer economy either you and Obama get us working again or guess what home prices will keep dropping and consumers will not buy the products that the corporations make unless they have too.
We both know the Market will tank if this keeps going on. Sticking your head in the sand and thinking business cycles will change eventually neglects the why they will change and assumes they will change for the better sans facts.

Listen, the unemployed should understand that we had to get health care reform done before doing any “jobs” action.

As Obama said, health care reform is how we can get a great economy, so it needed to be done first. Don’t you know that’s how Bill Clinton got a great economy in the 90′s? Wait! are you saying we had a great economy without health care reform in the 90′s?

But, Rahm said it was important and the public would love Democrats once it got done.

Or, was that Analrod?

Tell you what Ben student of the Great Depression if consumers stay unemployed much longer their long term buying patterns will change just like consumers buying patterns did after the Great Depression.
In other words WallStreet companies hopes based on consumer buying returning to normal well forget about that happening.

the chairman of the Federal Reserve, someone with enormous power over monetary policy to improve market conditions for hiring

I’m not too familiar with the Fed chair, what is his enormous power?

Ben you do know that China and Japan two countries that buy our debt do so to keep their money and thus their goods cheaper than our own goods. Why do they do this? They do it so we will buy their goods.

If our consumers won’t buy their goods because they are unemployed and Japan and China see no action from you or Obama to change that situation then what reason would China and Japan have to keep buying our debt?

China and Japan won’t buy our debt then you Ben Mr Big Corporations best friend will have to raise interest rates.

You Ben will kill the *cough* business recovery by choking business credit with higher interest rates.
As business loses easy credit to refinance loans banks will have no choice but to pull those loans or risk failure.

The FRB chair controls U.S. monetary policy.

The power to buy tons of worthless debt from banks at face value and hide bank losses. This stops markets from panicking because people think the tax payers not the banks are good for the debt.
However the Fed is not part of the U.S government I think we can walk away from this debt.

Go get ’em Ben!

Never happen…
Labor/middleclass doesn’t have a seat at the table..

Helicopter Ben vs Douglas Feith vs George Bush three way cage match for the title Stupidest Man on the Planet!

Audit the Federal Reserve: HR 1207 and S 604

I disagree with Ron Paul about a lot, but he is correct on auditing the FED, getting troops out of the Middle East and legalizing pot.

Oh well. As long as Ben’s bankster buddies and such get giant obscene bonuses for the truly amazingly excellent jobs that they did to us in Ben’s name… hey what’s a few unemployed serfs among buddies?

The stock market is currently UP these days. Isn’t that what’s important??? Hasn’t that solved all problems? Why aren’t you ungrateful peons dancing in the street about the stock market??

Yeah, agree.

Forgot my sarcasm tags.

I have no love for the fed, but there is really nothing they can do about unemployment other than talk. It’s in their mandate, but they really have no control over it. It’s congress and the resident’s job to address it. But they won’t.

Right on. On those issues I am in total agreement with Ron Paul and wish him much success. Sadly: not holding my breath (but worth a shot).

Implied??

Fed chair has several options to promote a faster economic recovery; he has not pulled the string on what can be done.

So he controls U.S. monetary policy, and hasn’t pulled strings?

I’m not getting a lot of detail out of this thread.

power to buy tons of worthless debt from banks at face value and hide bank losses.

Is this a good thing? Is that what he should do?

thank gawd for patty murray and maria cantwell helping my HERO the Big Zee-R-0 help re-annoint Bernanke! …
/snark
back 18 years ago when I was 32, and earlier, and after, I would just about ALWAYS vote XX, as long as the XX wasn’t a fundie fascist asshole like Phylis Schafley, and I figured it would take them time to get in there and figure out how to change things and get stuff done …

Reasons #34983743984778 I’m a fucking chump for automatically voting diaper shitting Dim-O-Shit sellouts.

ALWAYS Vote, NEVER Vote Fascist, STOP voting sell out & voting incompetent = write in your name if you have to … as if your vote could be any more wasted ??

rmm.

Still wishin’ and hopin’ for when Bernanke is unemployed and “dealing with it”

The Fed Chairman, along with the other regional Fed chairmen, has the power to control the money supply by either buying or selling treasury bonds and other assets. An increased money supply means lower interest rates, more lending, increased business activity, and more jobs. The Fed has other powers over bank reserves, margin levels for stock purchases, and other important financial activities.

Fed policy has a major effect on the economy and one of it’s mandates is to keep employment high – this is the mandate that always gets short shrift when prioritized against the desires and health of the major banks. Think of the current Fed as health insurance for the big Wall Street banks – if they get banged up taking big risks with depositor’s money the Fed steps in to save them. I don’t think they’ve given ten minutes worth of thought about employment levels in the last 30 years.

Speaking of Ron Paul, he’s the only R who holds a candle to O in a head-to-head match.

Hey Ben, I’ve dealt with my unemployment by living off of my 401K/SEP IRA.

Even after I paid the early withdrawal penalty, I still got to spend most of it on myself rather than watch it swirl down the drain when the market collapsed.

Small favors we get.

Don’t.Feed.The.Troll. No one on this site is so ignorant of the FRB, as this guy pretends to be.

I might be. What do you suggest the fed do to reduce unemployment?

Bernanke is the fount of the conventional wisdom of the early 1980s, which is when he was trained, and his notions about macroeconomics were set in stone. He is no better nor probably not much worse than any of a large number of people. The right choice for the job was Janet Yellen, who is one of the last surviving Tobin students still in the business. Even Larry Summers could probably do a better job on this particular issue (unemployment). He has an open mind and in an earlier life did outstanding research on it (along with Brad DeLong). I am waiting for the day — I think about six to nine months from now — when Bernanke will announce that the true ‘natural rate of unemployment’– you know the one we can’t go below for fear of starting a blood-curdling inflation — is 8.5 person. When Reagan was in power and Bernanke still just a green shoot, people like him held that it was 7.5 percent. What’s a percent or two among friends?

For starters, stop talking about cutting social welfare programs like SS.

The FRB has run out of its most powerful tool, interest rates. But they might stop talking about raising them until unemployment starts going down. And they have a lot of moral suasion which they could use to on the entities they laughingly ‘regulate’ to get them to lend. All Bernanke’s atmospherics are anti-labor.

The Fed has been audited six times in the past two years. The Fed is currently lending money to the banks at near-zero% interest, and the banks lend it out at three to six percent, which is how they’re currently making money. They are not, however, lending it to any business that presents any risk whatsoever. The banks also continue to play Wall Street Casino by booking “profits” on speculative financial instruments like CDO’s, just like they did before the economic meltdown. Auditing the Fed will have no impact on the games Wall Street is playing whatsoever.

Home foreclosures continue, personal bankruptcies are still rising, and 40% of commercial real estate is under water and those loans are up for reset within the next two years. This country will be lucky indeed if we have a “U” shaped recovery. It’s more likely to be a double-dip, “W” shaped recovery.

didn’t japan’s government allow banks to carry bad debts, and hide them for a long time?

followed by what?

anyone know? is it similar to this mess?

True, however I don’t think more debt is the solution or even that most people will take more on regardless of the banks. The responsibility for reducing unemployment rests squarely on congress and the resident, but the people who own them like unemployment because it reduces their labor costs.

If you’re not in favor of debt, how do you think Congress can do the job?

How can Obummer get reelected with 10% unemployment going into 2012? I mean, the dude is an awful politician.

Because the Rs are even worse. Paul’s the only one who comes close.

Don’t you know that’s how Bill Clinton got a great economy in the 90’s?

The “great” economy, or tech bubble?

Ooops. My 34 was in response to you.

Per the Federal Reserve acts of 1913 and 1977, the dual mandate of the Fed is to “promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.”

Now, it might be charitable (albeit realistically cynical) to attribute to Bernanke a redefinition of “maximum employment.” You could say he thinks that in this post-bubble America, maximum employment implies a “natural rate” of unemployment around 8 or 9%. But he’s not even saying that here, and to assume as much is far too charitable.

He admits that in the rosy situation of a moderate recovery (as opposed to a double-dip or worse), it will still take “a significant amount of time” to recoup the 8.5 million jobs lost in two years. If that’s the rosiest situation he can dream up, isn’t _that_ an implicit admission that he’s not terribly good at fulfilling half of the dual mandate of his organization?

What I’d really like to know is where in his organization’s charter it is written that he should have opinions on Social Security. Last I checked, we had a social security administration, a congress and other members of government to consider this. Last I checked, the Federal Reserve was an independent entity.

Of course, last I heard Bernanke talking about Social Security being a good system to rob^wreform, he bristled at such questions as, “wait, if we need revenue so badly, couldn’t we also raise taxes?”

I’m used to cursing up a blue streak every time anyone gives RETIRED FED CHAIRMAN Greenspan a microphone. Is it about time for Bernanke’s mic to be cut every time he goes off-topic? Or at least for someone to remind him what the _correct_ topics of his job are?

Private debt and business debt, I should have said. Congress and the beta male in the oval office need to subsidize infrastructure work and New Deal type programs.

Yes, but we all know that’s not gonna happen and more than Bernanke is gonna become pro-labor.

I guess Obummer thinks the “free” market will solve everything. No need to intervene. That’s his plan. Bad plan, man. Jobs ain’t coming back.

I agree he’s a scumbag, but the mandate for maximum employment is just something that sounds good on their resume, the fed really has little power over it. He does need to shut the fuck up.

I don’t know that that’s not gonna happen. It’s the only solution, imo. It will have to happen sooner or later, or it’s mad max time.

Link?

Maybe Ben used Bernie Madoff’s auditor? Enron was audited by Arthur Anderson. How did that work out for Arthur. World Com, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Global Crossing…… they all had auditors.

See my comment at number 1.

I would like to see what the auditors thought of Ben and Hank giving Wall Street $10 TRILLION.

Until we have a REAL meltdown neoliberalism will be the order of the day because the elites have figured out ways to tiptoe around the problem. Face it, we are broke. We make nothing and have a ton of debt. How long can this last? It’s only a matter of time before things really get bad. Now, if Obummer had done the honorable thing and helped the American people we may have avoided this. But the dude only cares about Gold Sacks & co.

So he controls U.S. monetary policy, and hasn’t pulled strings?

Yes What details are you looking for?

It would be very instructive if Ben Bernanke tried out the involuntary unemployment situation for himself. It might just change his perspective.

More than a quarter of sustained unemployment is unacceptable as policy. If inflation is a real worry, he is obligated to explain how inflation is going to occur in the midst of high unemployment.

No its not and if the banks had that debt on their balance sheet bankers bonuses would be harder to justify. But Ben is keeping how much worthless debt he bought at *cough* fair market value before the banking crisis secret.

Decades and yes

Actually, I am — and I’m not a troll.

EDIT: thanks, topcat @22, that helped my understanding

The obamabots are dancing think all is well so stop complaining.

They’re not lending much to businesses that are nearly risk-free, either.

Bernanke ought to have to stand up in front of a meeting filled by the unemployed, like those who have been looking for work for a couple of years. The unemployed ought to be given overripe tomatoes and peaches on the way in ….

Part tech bubble, yes, but a lot of your garden variety, regular “good” economy too.

Policymakers are not innocent bystanders who report on the economy and shrug their shoulders at those left behind.

Well when your brand new handy dandy President hires the same people that trashed the place to begin with, like Bernanke and Geithner, and the Congress stands around playing politics with each other for fun and profit, yes they are. Ask them; they’ll tell you.

Matter of fact, this administration isn’t even filling the jobs it has to fill. Still no new US attorney appointments. How many hundreds of Federal jobs had this administration failed to hire?

WallStreet companies hopes based on consumer buying returning to normal well forget about that happening.

What makes you think Wall Street cares a damn about comsumer buying returning to normal? I’ve come to the conclusion that Wall Street no longer cares whether we (the middle class, the poor, what I like to call “the unwashed masses”) can afford widgets anymore. They’ve found a new way of producing great wealth for themselves that doesn’t include us. It’s called gambling–with derivatives and credit default swaps, etc. That’s why they won’t lend to us or small business anymore. No percentage in it, or at least not as much as in those financial instruments. Who needs actual products? Not Wall St.!

Fed has only two primary goals mandated by congress:
1. Inflation Control
2. Job Creation.

Now Fed spent time doing something else:
Bailouts: Super-fast. 3 Page bill is sufficient for congress and Fed to act fast to start lending trillions. To put in context a normal small loan bill of few thousand for a main street customer is at-least 10 pages long topped of with credit checks.

Coming back to main two tasks:
Job Creation: Super-slow. Low priority. Will revisit the topic once a totalitarian regime shuts down our last remaining industry and only then floats its currency in the open market. Then Fed will act to see if any jobs can be created.
Inflation Control: Super slow. Will this be due to systemic structural issues in fed-speak since I am seeing the prices going higher with wages remaining stagnant.

Want to bring the budget out of control, cease the whole “War on Terror”, bring our troops home and cancel 50% of all these idiotic projects they have on the board. Slash the defense budget like there is no tomorrow. Yes, jobs in the defense industry will be lost (both military and civilian), but good lord, this is madness.