Economists give Bernanke his lowest rating ever.
By on Feb 6th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Economists give Bernanke his lowest rating ever.
In the Wall Street Journal forecasting survey released today, economists gave Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “the lowest grade of his two-year tenure — 75 out of 100 points — and said it was increasingly likely the nation’s economy would tumble into a recession.” On average, participating economists “put the odds of a recession at 49%, up from 40% in the January survey and 23% last June.”
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It sure isn’t Bernake’s fault that our economy is going south for the winter. We have leached out our productivity and sent it overseas, we no longer regulate to prevent banking industry death spirals like the subprime mortgage debacle.
Our economic problems can’t be fixed by a mere change in the interest rate or a $300 stimulous package to workers. We need a major investment in America instead of in Iraq, Exxonmobil and Haliburton.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:43 pmHow did good ole Mr Alan “lets lend to everybody so they can buy a house and keep the economy going in an artificial bubble so it can crash after I leave” Greenspan do?
February 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pmoh good… an economist thread… this will be OT, but i need help… another brain fart…
i heard thom hartmann, i think, the other day talking about the economy of the 70s and how carter, i think, inherited an economy based on ? principle… some economist, author…
anyone know?
it was a new name for me… the story was quite interesting though… made the problems carter faced clearer…
but then again, i may have it all wrong… it could’ve been KENNEDY…
February 6th, 2008 at 8:49 pmheh…
What would you expect a RePugniScum, moron, suckup that supports an administration that hates the working class to do?
February 6th, 2008 at 8:50 pmOf course Rupert’s WSJ blames it on Bernanke. Even though this is the predictable result of seven years of malfeasance and mismanagement, it just couldn’t be GWB’s fault. I’m reminded of a book about NAZI Germany I read called “They Thought They Were Free” that consists of interviews with people that lived through that era. One former Hitler supporter said that they were constantly told that anything that went wrong was the fault of a subordinate who was promptly punished. Nothing was ever the fault of Hitler or the party.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:05 pmWhat is Ben Bernanke going to use to save the US economy? SPITBALLS?
-Zell Miller
February 6th, 2008 at 9:20 pmComment by Snowball — February 6, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
I believe that the blame game won’t go over with the general public. It is too late. And besides, how many people know who Bernanke is or what he does? If their pocketbook is squeezed, BushCo will get the blame. And well they should!
This recession will be the death nell for the rethugs come Nov. They are thrashing about trying to push anything that will prevent from happening what is already here.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:26 pmThis recession will be the death nell for the rethugs come Nov. They are thrashing about trying to push anything that will prevent from happening what is already here.
Comment by Merlin — February 6, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
Yup, with Republicans blocking the stimulus package because they don’t want to extend it to veterans and the elderly while pushing to make permanent tax giveaways to the wealthy, their electoral fortunes are looking mighty dim.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:37 pmOf course Bernanke has some culpability for this mess. If he didn’t see this shit train coming, then he’s just as blinded by free market fundamentalism as the rest of the corporatists who are using the “invisible hand” to rob all of us blind!
February 6th, 2008 at 9:38 pmJust another Reich-wing Bush appointed Stooge.
He wasn’t put in that position because he’s brilliant. Shouldn’t be a surprise.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pmThe “R” word will absolutely tank the GOP and their candidate. If it’s McInsane, he’s already down the crapper due to his Bush idolatry and this illegal amoral war.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm60% of americans realize that we’re already in a Recession; just like BushCo staving off the inevitable by not calling Iraq a “civil war”, they’re playing games with the people and refusing to call it what it is. If 60% of americans know this, what kind of flaming idiots do we have in this whte house?
February 6th, 2008 at 9:44 pmComment by whatevah — February 6, 2008 @ 9:42 pm
If it’s McInsane, he’s already down the crapper due to his Bush idolatry and this illegal amoral war.
At this point in time, I believe I could win the presidency against McBush! And so could Donald Duck. The rethugs platform is so horrific that either C or O will destroy them in Nov. I can’t imagine what a debate will look like.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:51 pmThat rating looks right – a minus 75 out of 100.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:59 pmThis $hit started with Raygun and we will never recapture our old manufacturing economy completely. All the money and power is being concentrated at the very top and those folks won’t ever get their hands dirty. But, Bernake does have a nifty beard.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:40 pmThis is nice try on the WaR Street Junket’s part, but BUSH is being blamed and will continue to be blamed.
It’s amazing that they try and blame a guy on the job for, what, a year…when they have been gutting the economy for 7.
Go ahead trolls, pick a day in 2005 when the dow went up 280 points, and then blame Clinton. No one is listening anymore.
What?
huh?
Can’t hear you?
Bush ruined what? the economy? WINNER!
February 6th, 2008 at 11:07 pmThe Fed is the problem. Fiat money systems are inherently flawed and their only purpose is to create a plutocracy. The banking interests have always known this, which is why Andrew Jackson said “If we ever let there be a central bank than one day our children’s children will wake up and realize that all of our prosperity has been taken from us” Woodrow Wilson, the president responsible for letting this unconstitutional act be passed realized his grave mistake and was haunted by it in his later years, saying on his death bed that he had allowed an unstoppable and dreadful chain to be put on the American people.
The appeal of a fiat money system, that is one with no actual backing, is that when congress wants to appropriate say $500 Billion for an unjust war then all they have to do is go to the fed and say “Print me some money.” They don’t have to raise taxes to provide their campaign contributors with pork. They don’t have to raise taxes at all. In fact they can lower them, which is wildly popular among those too ignorant to realize that the decrease in taxes isn’t going to benefit them in the long run. But the problem is that soon enough the dollar is worth far far less. The dollar is worth 1/14th what it was worth before the fed…
One person working used to be able to provide the American dream. Now it takes two working 40+ a week 50 weeks out of the year. Does this not seem wrong to you?
Another point that I did not realize until I started researching this topic is that in Roman times an ounce of gold could buy you a toga, a belt, some sandals, and food at a restaurant. Today an once of gold will buy you a suit a belt some shoes and dinner. It has not lost it’s worth in 2000+ years.
The fed charges interest on money that it prints out of thin air. We pay that interest because we have no other option.
Just become aware of this whole fraud that is the foundation of our society because only with awareness will we have the chance to bring about change.
See below for links to information
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/greene032104.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve
news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1095269452.php
http://www.fdrs.org/banking_history.html
And some good documentaries
Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve
FIAT EMPIRE – Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution
History of the Federal Reserve
And finally for those who want to know even more, some books
The creature from Jekyll Island – G Edward Griffin
The Case Against the Fed – Murray N. Rothbard
A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II – Murray N. Rothbard
What Has Government Done to Our Money? Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar – Murray N. Rothbard
February 6th, 2008 at 11:57 pmWell, it was Nixon that took us got rid of the gold back in 1971
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
Nixon didnt start the Vietnam war, of course, but his dragging it out didnt help inflation any.
Katy, maybe you mean Volcker?
February 7th, 2008 at 12:02 amYeah, the fed didn’t immediatly take us off of the gold standard. Except in times of war. They did so During WW2 as well as Vietnam.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:20 amthank you, X …
i hear a tiny bell ringing up there…
i’ll check that name further…
…
pessimist – i like that name… i think…
reminds me of me… maybe…
i am mostly pessimistic…
makes those positive things more special and surprising…
when they happen…
it’s very late…
February 7th, 2008 at 1:17 amIt won’t be long before Greenspan is remembered as the worst Fed chairman in history. Bernanke will just be a footnote.
Speaking of ineffective scapegoats, whoever hears anything about the war czar anymore?
February 7th, 2008 at 3:18 amThis’s why he’s no longer the “CEO of Princeton’s Economics Department”?
It’s not just monetarist policies that’re causing our slide into Recession (and ultimate spiral into Depression), but, rather, it is the diastrous no-tax, spend-wildly, starve-the-beast, trickle-down, crony-capitalist policies of the Cheney-Bushites that Greenspan-Bernanke have been guilty at most of complicity in that lie at the heart of our economic woes.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:49 amI am no defender of Bernancke, but to blame him for the economic crisis seems unfair. Our economy has been headed toward the dumper for a long time and Bernancke is the unfortunate head of the Fed at this time. His skills and analysis are not for me to rate. To state the obvious, Bush’s economic policies have been disastrous.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:09 amThe problem began in the 80’s, I believe, with Reagan’s administration. GHW Bush exacerbated the problem.
The economy of the 90’s was great, but it was not realistically sound. The passage of NAFTA didn’t help.
We’ve had downturns before, but the guns and butter approach of GW Bush, coupled with the Grover Norquist tactics, has locked us into what looks like a long and depressing period.
I see that I used a poor phrase in #23. Bush has not employed a guns and butter approach – but a guns and tax cut approach.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:32 am