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Does Bernanke Look Like a Man Who is Confident About the State of the Economy and the Prospects for Recovery?
There is a lot to say about Bernanke's comments on 60 Minutes yesterday.
Bernanke's statement that unemployment is the biggest impediment to economic recovery is ironic, given that Bernanke's policies have increased unemployment. See this and this.
Harry Blodget notes that Bernanke implied that inequality is destroying America. Tyler Durden hones in on Bernanke's statements that the economic recovery may not be self-sustaining, and that the Fed may buy even more bonds. Daily Bail picks on Bernanke's claim that the Fed is not printing money.
There are certainly a lot of interesting things to say about Bernanke's words.
But I think the real story is how nervous Bernanke appears.
Listen to his voice, and watch his lips quaver:
Ignore his words ... does this look like a man who is confident about the state of the economy and the prospects for recovery?
Does this sound like a man who is sure that history will judge his actions kindly?
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There is no colour in his face. He stutters. I never heard him stutter in front of Congress. He has the aura of someone who just survived a plane crash. I would feel sorry for him if I did not know how he screwed Amerika. Sympathy for the devil?
DEAR Uncle (Sam) Sucker,
I was about to send you a thank you note for bailing out the economy . . . but then some nice men dressed in Ninja outfits came in and shot me full of truth serum. That led me to make one more set of edits to my letter thanking you for saving the economy.
It also helped me recall some things I seemed to have forgotten in my other public pronunciations about the bailouts.
I suddenly recalled who it was who allowed the banks to run wild in the first place: You. Your behavior before, during and after the crisis was the epitome of a corrupt and irresponsible government. You rewarded incompetency, created moral hazard, punished the prudent, and engaged in the single biggest transfer of wealth from the citizenry of the United States to the Wall Street insiders who created the mess in the first place.
Kudos.
Before I get to the bailouts, I have to remind you that in:
These actions and rule changes were requested by the banking industry. Rather than behave as adult supervision, you indulged the reckless kiddies, looking the other way as they acted out. You were the grand enabler of the finance sector’s misbehavior. Hence, you helped create the mess by allowing the banking sector to run roughshod over decades of successful constraints. (Kudos again on that).
There were voices warning about the upcoming crisis, but you managed to turn a deaf ear to them: Warnings about subprime lending, problems with securitization, against the false claim that residential real estate never went down in value, or that the models forecasting VAR were wildly understating risk. An economy driven by growth dependent upon credit fueled consumption was unsustainable, and yet you encouraged that reckless credit consumption. The compensation schemes for Wall Street were hilariously short term (ignored by you); the crony capitalism of Boards of Directors that undercut market discipline was similarly ignored. You encouraged the hollowing out of the US economy, allowing it to become increasingly “Financialized” at the expense of industry and manufacturing. What was once a small but important part of the economy became dominant, yet unproductive, with your blessing.
Bottom line: You were at a loss for understanding the many factors that led to the crisis in the first place.
When the crisis struck, you did not seem to understand the role you should play. Instead of stepping up to halt the financialization, to unwind it, you gave away the shop. You failed to extract concessions from firms on the verge of bankruptcy. Your negotiating skills were embarrassing. In the face of meltdown, you panicked.
You could have undone the decades of radical deregulation at that moment. You could have fired the incompetent management, wiped out the shareholders who invested in insolvent companies, gave the creditors and bond holders a major haircut for their foolish lending. Instead, you rewarded them for their gross incompetence.
The solutions you ran with were ad hoc, poorly thought out, improvised. You crossed legal boundaries, putting the Fed in the position of vio0lating its charter and exceeding its mandates. You created a Moral Hazard, the impact of which may not be felt until decades in the future.
Very few of your senior elected and appointed officials understood what was going on.
Rather than offer an intelligent response to the crisis, you delivered brute force: Trillions of dollars were thrown at the problem, papering over its symptoms but not its underlying causes.
Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered a motherload of cash. Considering the dollar sums involved, your actions were remarkably ineffective. What was left over afterwards was a wildly over-leveraged consumer whose credit limits had been reached; State and municipal budgets were heavily dependent upon that excess consumer spending, creating huge budget holes because of it. Net net: The resultant economy was in the worst recession since the Great Depression.
As a student of the Great Depression, Ben Bernanke should have had the best grasp – but his bailout of Bear Stearns revealed him to be just another banker, intent on saving the banks – banking system be damned. To give you a clue of exactly how lost Hank Paulson was, he spent his time praying, and creating documents that exempt himself personally for liability. He’s from Goldman, so we know that “team first” ain’t exactly his style. Tim Geithner, who did such a stupendous job overseeing the banks in the first place, was n way over his head. And while I never voted for George W. Bush, I give him great credit for hiding under the bed and pretty much staying out of everyone else’s way. I would call him clueless, but that wouldn’t be fair to the legions of clueless around the world.
Sheila Bair grasped the gravity of the situation earliest, and put numerous failed banks through the insolvency process. If we were smart, we would have allowed her to work her way through the entire finance sector, effecting a GM-like prepackaged bankruptcy for Citigroup, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AIG, etc. It would have been painful as hell, but we would be much better off had we allowed her to tear the band aid off quickly. Instead, we are suffering through a death of a 1000 cuts, Japanese style.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention my personal positions in this: I made a killing in Goldman Sachs and GE. My investments in Wells Fargo would have been a disaster if not for you. Don’t even get me started with me being the largest shareholder in Moody’s – that was some clusterf#@k. And considering all of the counter-parties that Berkshire Hathaway has, we risked being just another insolvent investment firm along with everyone else had nothing been done.
So I must say thanks to you, Uncle Sam, and your aides. In this extraordinary emergency, you came through for me — and my world looks far different than if you had not.
Your grateful but wide-eyed nephew,
Warren
http://greatreddragon.com/
JMHO, but I think he is extremely introverted and doesn't like looking people in the eye. His nervousness is because, despite his ascent to the pinnacle of power and prestige in this society, he knows that what really counts is having an innate sense of self-confidence, usually based on nothing, and the deep resonant voice that goes along with that--witness the interviewer. B is the prototype 96 lb weakling who is accustomed to having sand kicked in his face by the big honchos who humiliated him on a daily basis in front of the sexy chicks he was always fantasizing about, but could never have. If he could be one of those macho dick-heads, he'd gratefully exchange all of his worldly success for that. Growing up in Hell-hole South Carolina probably did that to him. He loathes the interviewer and all that he represents. His whole life is devoted to "I'll show them!" Too bad he can't be like Mao's wife and just exterminate his enemies, or maybe that's what he's doing at the Fed. George McFly vs Biff. In effect, like so many of us, he is a true believer in Darwin. He knows, despite all, that he's no alpha male, and the absolute judges of manly worth--cheap sexpot whores--will have nothing to do with him, other than using him and then humiliating him. To bad he can't find some other script for his life, but he did grow up in the boonies. At least he didn't do a Henry Kissinger and adopt a fake German accent.
the problem Bernanke has , is people understand what his statements mean....good or bad.....now Greenspan, i could never understand what the hell he just said , even in a one on one interview as this
I call BS on this whole nervous thing. I got the impression he was nerves from the first scene. Besides, since when did a person's mannerisms become rationale for a personality attack.
I don't agree with what Bernanake is doing, and disgust the secrecy surrounding the Reserve. But its on the latter point that the battle is to be fought. Everything else is emotional masturbation.
I call BS on this whole nervous thing. I got the impression he was nerves from the first scene. Besides, since when did a person's mannerisms become rationale for a personality attack.
I don't agree with what Bernanake is doing, and disgust the secrecy surrounding the Reserve. But its on the latter point that the battle is to be fought. Everything else is emotional masturbation.
he sounds and looks more confident than tim geithner, now theres a walking noodle
I can't imagine facing the very people I've robbed, am still robbing, and am still planning to rob more, and not be nervous. I guess every gang needs a spokesman. Hope he's making enough personally.
I've done some work in pro audio and can tell from his voice he is fretting about something. There is nothing "pushing" his words out; no confidence. He sounds like a kid who wants to call his daddy to come get him because the big kids are picking on him.
the Bernak
will save us
NOT....
bernankrupt is a lying sack of shit. anyone who would waste time watching that buffoon has too much time on his hands.
Mr.Bernak looks like he shit his pants and was hoping no one noticed
That mofo is worthless.
Bernanke is an uncomfortable liar.
Bernanke was heavily coached before this session, and successfully blocked a lot of tells.
He was careful not to nod his head "no" when making a positive statement, thereby refuting himself (like Hillary does).
He was able to control his blink frequency, and keep it low. It is possible that he was medicated to assist that. Look at Tony Blair in his first press conference after the 7/7 bombings. Blair was totally flustered and blinking over 40/minute, completely lying.
Bernanke had his entire face botoxed into a mask for this, but couldn't control the fear in his voice, or his hesitancy and eagerness in answering. He answered the question about whether he might need to do QE-3 super fast, and much relieved to say "yes". The double-dip recession question was the opposite. He came in without committing, merely saying that "there appeared to be a very low probability". This in no way states what he knows, or even what he expects. He's a bright boy. He knows what the fuck he just failed to say, and it eats at him, so he erodes it more and more with his subsequent statements, until he finally gets to say something true, that unemployment is the big threat. Then he is relieved to have said something true, and lets it go.
The fear in Bernanke's voice reminds me of the speach which GWB gave when he was begging America for the TARP. He was terrified, and gripped the podium so hard the whole time, that you could hear his hands creaking and squeaking on the mic feed.
Bernanke isn't evil, and you can tell that he wants to tell the truth, but he's in way over his head, playing with the elite sociopaths, and he WILL do as he is told.
In my opinion Bush is a sociaopath, and he is completely comfortable with lying in public, but you can still tell when he's pissing his pants in fear. (Snicker, chuckle...)
So what are you getting at ? we should feel sorry for the boy and have clemency ? You must be kidding. Bernanke HAS a choice, INTEGRITY or COWERDISE it's as simple as that ! He is a great piece of shit, and the fact that this con man would be blessed by an above average intelligence makes it even more unacceptable ! Bernanke IS a sociopath and evil. Frankly I dont know how he can get up in the morning and watch his freaken lying face in a mirror.
I'm not asking for clemency for Bernanke. I'm analyzing him, so as to see what he actually believes, behind what he appears to say. He does believe the "100%" ability to prevent inflation. He says it so fast, and with such obvious comfort and relief, that he surely believes it. That means that what is terrifying HIM is deflation. He's not a brave man. He does what he is told, but when you serve the masters who he serves, and they make you tell lies, it is good for the rest of us, if your body says what you really believe and don't believe.
He does not believe that "appears unlikely" statement about the double-dip. He does have an inflated opinion of his ability to fix things with massive cash flows to the big banks. That doesn't make it true, but just means that it seems true to him.
Personally, I'm glad Bernanke is scared and unable to lie comfortably. As a result, I know that he intends to do quantitative easing until nobody will take it, and that he believes this is OK because we are about to have a huge deflationary collapse, just like the Great Depression. He is terrified, because he feels he is losing control, when his one purpose in life has been to be able to prevent a replay of the Great Depression (while keeping power in the hands of the bankers). Few on this forum believe the great depression repeat is avoidable. I'm hopeful that he is terrified primarily because he sees banks losing control, going into the inevitable collapse.
Stay tuned!
just a guess here, but I get the vibe he is stressed, like a guy with a mistress that might out him to his rich wife at any moment, but I believe some of the stress is he is actually trying to assert some personal power to do what is right from US, he does not like being puppet, he is trying to do some good where he can but he knows it is a dangerous, dangerous game, and not just for him.
What is going on the even grown men, advanced in years and accomplisment, who seem to care little of much beyond themselves seem scared. I totally agree W looked terrified in his TARP speech and seemed to be purposefully hiding when Paulson was running around like a chicken. Paulson seemed also stressed, the tell to me was him reportedly getting down on his knees to Pelosi to get TARP thru the house...its like he wanted some one to know he was really trying, he seemed desperate beyond what would make any sense for him...he is rich no matter if market crashed or not...it was like a sniper had a laser tag bouncing on his head and he knew...
I agree with both your statements. He's being used and can't back out. He truly believes in adding liquidity to prevent another depression, and even stated that the federal government could clean up the tax code to help bring back businesses. USA needs more legitimate income, not credit. What more can the central bank do to encourage income producing activity? The federal government's deficits are the real threat, and are siphoning off so much useful capital from what's left of the economy, if the Blackhawk is grounded, so are bond sales, and so is all confidence in the dollar. However, dropping wads of cash into the system has the same effect, on a smaller (for now) scale........
No way out. He knows this in the back of his mind.....
double post
Of course he knows there 's no way out...who the hell wants a way out up in the high spheres ? they want states to be so indebted that they will actually own States and us as slaves ! the plan is nt to try to fix things, it's to make us beleive that he/they did their utmost to get out of the mess ! Hell what's going on in the mines industry these days (did you check this ?), just look at emerging markets, investments are soaring and guess who is heading all that ? yep the same ones...Bernanke is playing a comedy and he knows damn well where this is all leading to !
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1080171/The-Mafia-paradise-holds-secret-tycoons-alliance.html
http://www.globalpost.com/webblog/russia-and-its-neighbors/russia-rothschild-%E2%80%93-get-it-while-it%E2%80%99s-still-warm
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/nat-rothschild-plays-his-strongest-suit-with-3-billion-commodities-deal.html
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/search/?keyword=gold&x=34&y=18
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2010/4/Pages/Nathan-Rothschild-Plans-Fund-to-Scoop-Up--Merger-Cast-Offs.aspx
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/overview/329/barrick-gold-0329.html
double post
Not to point out the obvious - but it probably is nerve-wracking to go on 60 Minutes in from of 15 million people with a camera right in your face. Or am I to believe all the ZHers buying their compounds and stocking them with MREs and bullion would somehow find the fortitude to be perfectly composed in this situation?
Nervous does not mean lying and concealing the truth...though I admit it's convenient to use as evidence for the econolypse when you're a doomer.
His voice was trembling in 2007-8.
Hanky Paulson was also terrified Spring-Summer, 2008, readily apparent, could definitely see it in his eyeslits.
They Know We're Fucked. Rebuild Now.
Stop the extend and pretend now.
Dismantle these 5 Banks ASAP.
bernanke is overseeing a monetary collapse, all that 'studying' of the great depression and all he does is repeat it.
Please let us not focus on the Fed and Benny Boy anymore. Their game is "up". We all know it. They know it also. This interview was a waste of time for anyone to watch. If I want to watch liars talk to each other, Sara Palin's Alaska is more entertaining and she is at least hot despite being a a pain and her mouth needing to be taped shut. Yawn.
The Man actually cares about the unemployed...
WAW
Looks like the ghosts of Christmass already gave him a early visit!
might want to look over this....pretty interesting facts...
http://greatreddragon.com/
(Foreign Money Power In The United States)
What does this guy have to worry about, its not as if he's using real money.
The one's who have something to fear are the one's that will be paying for this fiasco in the years to come, i.e., the taxpayer.
Unless of course, everything the FED has purchased manages to disappear down some magical rabbit hole.
Well let me correct this, those who will pay will be taxpayers yes....YOUR children, THEIR children etc...that's just not acceptable
Looks like a man under a lot of psychotropic medication just to keep his shit together.
Dude, I was thinkin' that he coulda used some serious Ativan. Screw the pills...you know, that kind in the epipen dispensers with about 500mg that're used for drug OD's.
A buddy related when embedded with the Marines during GW1 the media'd scavenge bunches and stagger about in dazes with the things sticking out of their butts like porcupines.
The unwinding will be biblical in its proportions.
Perhaps we can add the Book of Benjamin to the Bible? Slip it in there right before Revelation?
denial, in psychology, an ego defense mechanism that operates unconsciously to resolve emotional conflict, and to allay anxiety by refusing to perceive the more unpleasant aspects of external reality.
denial is described as a primitive defense mechanism defense mechanism, in psychoanalysis, any of a variety of unconscious personality reactions which the ego uses to protect the conscious mind from threatening feelings and perceptions.
The widespread occurrence of denial among small children and explained that the mature ego does not continue to make extensive use of denial, because it conflicts with the capacity to recognize and critically test reality. Most people employ denial at some time in their lives when coping with stressful situations
Denial may be considered adaptive. It is considered maladaptive, however, when it becomes delusional. In recent years, the term is used more generally, to describe the suppression of reality rather than a particular defense mechanism in the Freudian sense.
He he he
Yep, they're very very sick men....
It was like watching "To Catch a Predator" with Ben explaining that he was only there to warn the little girl about the dangers of the internet. But he couldn't explain why he emailed a photo of his flaccid unit.
Anyone know of online polygraphs to slip the video through? Well, no, why bother...
He is just playing out his string on all of this. Doing his job that he has been alloted to do in the massive conspiracy.
Biggest lies are:
My dream is to have an Internet platform to discuss and analyse any statements part by part, let determine and hold permanent all pro and contras. Then one could copy and paste this speech, split it into peaces and tear down any statement one after another with clear arguments. And all of this would stay permanent for years to see for anybody willing to be enlighted.
I have no doubt the Bernank can fool most of the people who watch 60 Minutes. I'm sure most of them believe inflation is affected by the "amount of currency" in our pockets and ATM machines. What a foolish thing for a Federal Reserve chairman to say.
And what Bernanke can't say is he's confident about inflation because the government fudges the inflation number and, besides, he doesn't plan on any of the money he's creating to get into our hands anyway. He knows the big banks are still undercapitalized, so that's where the (our) money will end up. Therefore he can confidently state he doesn't see any improvement in employment in the near future.
There is no real reason to monetize debt and keep interest rates at near zero except to help bankers, their bondholders and stockholders. The rest of us will get nothing except the bill. And that's the horrible truth behind the beard.
In the end all systems (i.e., isms, etc.) may be judged or marked within their predetermined ability to allow or deny the personal freewill of choice. What else may be said of freedom or that of liberty but that they deliver governance by choice? Whereas most 'isms' today, including mercantilism and 'regulatory democracy,' govern by coercive force and purposefully deny the personal freewill of choice. God created man as a free moral agent to reap what he alone sows.
Since the beginning, there have been innumerable men organizing themselves in countless ways dedicated to denying other men the free moral agency inherent in man's nature. Such is the fountainhead of the same tyranny, despotism and heinous jealousies witnessed down through the ages since the days of Nimrod. There is not one of us alive today who believes we've ever witnessed one hour of free-market capitalism, whatever it was meant to be. Laissez-faire free market capitalism died a martyr’s death countless ages ago when mankind traded his birthright [the sovereign right to coin his own money] for a bowl of porridge.
What struck me about this piece is the stale scripting of the interview. And I don't mean just the audio. The cut-ins as they are walking through the university library... the shot of the Fed meeting hall... his home town... This kind of propaganda has been going on for so long now we've become numb to it, but it's all aimed at a sense of "all is right with the world; this is the kind of man and situation we want running the country." Who still buys this? It just feels so cheap!
what a worthless lying piece of stinking garbage...WTF. The entire US gov't is a criminal enterprise where lying to the people is job #1.
I wrote on my blog after my wife and I watched 60 Minutes:
Bev and I watched FED Chairman Ben Bernanke on “60 Minutes tonight.” Both of us agree he does not inspire confidence. His upper lip was shaking as was his chin. He acted scared! You can read the transcript of the interview over at Zero Hedge.
Wonder how many others are scared? Wonder how many more are scared after seeing that interview?
There is nothing to fear but fear itself.
Oh shit. We're fucked.
Long FEAR...
I hope O'Reilly has this on his body language segment
Probably the only thing that The Bernank is worried about is losing control and and having his masters make him the victim of of some terrorist plot. Easy come and easy go.
One wold think that a 1600 SAT would be an indication of intelligence ... guess not, eh?
I agree, and I think it is similar to a mid life crisis. I noticed it during the Jackson Hole speech. His words continue to be arrogant as hell too, which tells you he is bluffing. Look no further than his "100%" comment. I have said this many times, I would love to play poker with Blackhawk, Timmah, and Hank, because those stammering idiots couldn't hold a tell back if they tried. Soon Blackhawk will have an ear pierced and a younger "girl" friend.
...and he will absolutely insist to her that it is 13 inches long in spite of the fact that it only looks like it is 3 inches
"Here use this ruler. I am 100% sure you will get the number I desire." "This is metric." "Just do it! And hurry up, it is hard for me to hold it."
His girlfriend's got 13"?
Holy cash-molie!
Musta been introduced by Mary Shapiro.