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Guest Post - Is Ben Bernanke Smart Enough To Be A CEO
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Why assume that CEO's are "smart"? Lot's of other factors - right place, right time, political skills, etc.
and height.
Hair, teeth, golf handicap...
Dad's position, Grandfathers posistion and history, etc.
Thank you prescott bush for the FED
Hair, teeth, golf handicap...
And the previous poster's "height".
Now, how does all this apply to Lloyd Blankmind?
hair obviously not. height and teeth hard to find easily. golf ditto. it wasn't dad or grandad though. he was born poor. roomed at harvard (same house) as bernanke though. both are seadragon bait if you get my drift.
ceos generally are well above average in iq (typically 117-130 or so)
and have larger vocabularies than college
professors, vocabulary being highly correlated
with iq....
on the other hand that does not make them wise...
if you give a smart man bullshit information
then you may as well have hired a fucktard.....
and being sociopaths as many of them further erodes
their values....
i am not a defender of ceos - they have plenty
of other limitations - but intelligence is a
cornerstone of a good ceo...
"vocabulary being highly correlated
with iq"....
"if you give a smart man bullshit information
then you may as well have hired a fucktard".
Seems to me the more pressing and relevant isssue is what happens when you elect fucktards and give them bullshit information.
So it looks to me we should only hire new CEO's with IQ below 100, otherwise the economy is at risk! Wait a minute, maybe there is something wrong with assessing IQ?
true. But some deserve to be up there. Not all in life is about the Peter principle
the headline says "smart" but the article says private sector experienced (and honest, thrifty, etc.). the actual ceo's of the tbtf had quite a lot of experience. as for honest and thrifty, not so much. they, after all, had only their monster leverage (in so many ways) to thank for being kept from failure (though it is a fine line between being dead and being a zombie, or so i hear).
Wrong question.
Proper question: "is he dumb enough to be a CEO ?".
Depends how you define "smart" or "dumb". Many CEOs are smart enough to pay themselves first, pump up the stock, hollow out the company and run with their options while trumpeting their genius. Bernanke can do that, no problem. I'd be curious to know exactly how his palm is getting greased for orchestrating this monumental con job.
Often the palm doesn't need to be greased but rather the ego. You would be very surprised how many people would take a upgrade in title rather than an upgrade in pay.
Baby Ben is considered to be the "MAN", the maestro, the puppet master. For many the ego trip is compensation enough. Hubris has tripped up many an ego.
The fed's job is to guarantee GS & JPM make a profit, period. Using that criterion he is eminently qualified.
CEO's are smart? That's funny, Tyler. Also, Bernanke was the Dean of the School of Economics at Princeton.
That's a bit more than just "teaching college."
I don't think he's a good Fed chair, but...
Vedran: This is a great piece and thanks for sharing it with ZH.
Ben is the perfect oligarchy fudge packing puppet.
+1.
imo that insults fudge packers (and puppets).
Subprime?? No worries--it's contained...
There is no housing bubble.
--Ben Bernanke
And in this man's hands our fates rest.
Good night.
I'd have to say no. Ben's job is to give money to rich criminals, not to be one.
No, But Timmy Is
And in a new profile in Vogue, Geithner is reported to have been offered a job as the CEO of Citigroup (He was "sorely tempted" by the offer, Vogue writes.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/tim-geithners-vogue-inter_n_471...
Shiela Bair Rejected by Vogue Over Her Looks, but Geithner Gets the Nod - 02/23/2010 - Yves Smith
A profile in VOGUE????????????????
ROFLMFAO....There is no limit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If Chairman Asshat had any brains, he'd resign, change his name, have some proxy buy a purchase a small tropical island on his behalf, and disappear.
Why be present when the train wreck you planned finally goes off the rails?
dumbing down. what a stupid waste of america's time. god we are misguided right now.
amen to that. we are screwed.
Geithner is Rubin's guy so it makes perfect sense that he would be tapped
Managing a bank is really more of a policy job which is closer to academics than management, which is essentially the class that CEO belongs to.
Hey...how'd the CEOs of GM, HP, Lehman, Bear, BoA, Citi, the guys who bought Chrysler [the Nazi scum and the Cerberus big shots], CIT, Enron, AOL, Apple after Jobs left, General Growth, etc., workout for their respective companies ?
and that's the short list.
And how many of them are using food stamps today? None? Case closed.
interesting article but experience is over rated.....when i think of the jobs lincoln and truman did with limited experience i am reminded of the shortcomings of that yardstick....
i agree that a college professor is not a good candidate for fed chairman....intelligence and the right knowledge are more important...bernanke knows voodoo economics inside and out....many experienced candidates would know voodoo economics inside and out and would be equal losers...it is bernanke's knowledge which disqualifies him more than anything else....
if this author's idea of an ideal candidate is an mba with let's say goldman sachs management experience i would throw him on trash heap....
and what of barry soetoro? - indonesian citizen extraordinaire....he has even less experience than bernanke yet the american people gave him a strong victory....
www.obamacrimes.com
the more i think of it the more retarded this article was....and that's saying a lot given how much contempt i have for bernanke....a pitch fork up his ass would be too kind of an ending for him.....
This is an idiotic paper. Suddenly experience at a corporation is worth everything? Agree or disagree with Bernanke, but the guy taught at one of the top universities in the world, very well respected as an economist, and a longtime economic advisor to Presidents and Federal Reserve Governor before becoming Chairman. He's definitely super-accomplished and smart - that doesn't mean he necessarily makes the right decision, but you can't call him "dumb". That just makes this Vedran Vuk guy look like a whiny idiot.
Ben Bernanke was to the Fed manner born…and schooled thusly from college days onward. As Anonymous #147842 wrote on ZH in December:
Education
... Bernanke spent his undergraduate years at Harvard University where he lived in Winthrop House and graduated with a B.A. in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979. His thesis was named "Long-term commitments, dynamic optimization, and the business cycle" and his thesis adviser was Stanley Fischer.[15]
Contemporaries at Harvard University
A notable contemporary at Harvard University was Lloyd Blankfein (A.B. 1975, also Winthrop House), Chairman & CEO at Goldman Sachs.
And as Mike Phoenix wrote in July of 2008 on The Market Oracle: Bernanke Seeks a Great Depression to Test His Thesis.
Connecting the dots, a quick glance at Fischer's wikipedian summary recently gave this cutline under his picture:
Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel: Born 15 October 1943 (age 64) Northern Rhodesia (Now Zambia); Nationality: Israeli, American; Fields, Economics; Institutions: Bank of Israel 2005-, Citigroup 2002-05, IMF 1994-01, World Bank 1988-90, MIT 1973-88, 1990-94: Alma mater: LSE (BSc ,MSc) MIT (PhD); Doctoral advisor Franklin M. Fisher; Doctoral students N. Gregory Mankiw, Ben S. Bernanke.
Also: Fischer became Governor of the Bank of Israel on May 1, 2005. On the 9 January 2005, it was announced that Mr. Fischer has agreed to become the next governor of the Bank of Israel, after being nominated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has been involved in the past with the Bank of Israel, having served as an American government adviser to Israel's economic stabilization program in 1985.
Speaking of experience, it was Ben Bernanke who, with Alan Greenspan, oversaw the derivatives time bomb that has turned into a worldwide financial weapon of destruction. All done behind closed doors by a few powerful men.
In fact, Bernanke while Greenspan's understudy said that derivatives were good for the economy, making the U.S. economy resilient to risk.
Bernanke is the bankers’ CEO. Nobody has ever been chairman of the Federal Reserve System central bank without being selected by the Federal Reserve banking cartel. It was the Federal Reserve that caused this financial storm and it was Captain Bernanke who sailed the Good Ship U.S.A. right into the teeth of its winds and is holding it there.
Bernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005 and one of his first speeches as a Governor was entitled "Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here." The banking cartel chooses its CEOs well; it fears deflation the way a vampire fears the cross.
Bernanke had a "feel" for the business..grading papers and writing about panaceas involving free or "crack" money...in that sense he was spotted by the rock 'n' rother masters as "to the FED born". Who better to follow Greenspun, who invented the monetary equivalent of "crack" like they did in LA in the 80's..Green spun indeedy! Helicopter Ben and the Road to Serfdom while protected from Terrrrrsts by the TSAa and FEMAs
What drivel. Bernanke was head of the Princeton Economics department, and is one of the most brilliant RESEARCHERS of his time. Some people are intelligent enough to recognize the difference between a high school teacher an a research university professor.
You may also notice that the Fed only hires PhD economists, not business school grads. This is for good reason, MBA students dont have any of the tools necessary to study the type of dynamic problems necessary for economic stabilization policy. A PhD in economics is very close to a PhD in mathematics, a far cry from marketing and valuation.
Drivel?
You don't send a "researcher" with a PhD to do a cop's job unless you want hell on earth, yet here we are.
You may also notice that the Fed only hires PhD economists, not people with balls. This is for good reason, people with balls tend to stand up against injustice and put criminals in jail. Researchers tend to not understand what's going on until it's over.
The job description is four sentences long, dude.
I can't help but be angry that more people didn't speak up about how bad a choice Bernanke was BEFORE he got reappointed. I don't really see the point now.
If we had more people who stand erect, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
Not true, I signed petitions, wrote congressmen, there were polls. The only way he wouldn't have been appointed was if there were massive riots and I'm not sure thiose would have worked. His reappointment was proof we no longer have democracy in this country, we have corporate ownership of government.
There were also many articles in the press, etc.
If you can't figure out what the real deal is with Geitner, Summers and Bernanke still in power you don't know what is going on. We have a one party state, with two factions (republican and democrat), both controlled by the same corporate owners. They choose who we get to vote for. Like 1984 they have mastered the art of media manipulation.
what would be more impressive ..is starting from scratch.. with ones own dough..bldg A successful profitable business.
hiring , expanding , givng back to the community,
CEO's generally now come to their position after years of sucking up in a system .. political posturing, climbing over bodies.. giving favors , making backroom deals,
the notion that CEO's are some sort of extra special talent is bunko,,, sure burneke fills the bill .. he is a timplate for the suck up govenment , business relationship with paid lobbyists .. a hand full of spit,, and a moral compass of a dog in heat ,
Here is what Dianne Feinstein thinks of Ben (her canned reply to email opposing his confirmation):
i apologize for the length...it seemed shorter in my email program...
Yeah. I wrote her to vote No and got the same pile of poop in my email...All that talk and at the end is the distillation of a pathethic weasel woman who doesn't have a clue to anything but playing both ends against the middle and comforting the dumb sheep who think she's one of them rather than the wolves's beatch.
Yeah, I got the same thing too. The fact that she quotes USA Today gets me stark ravin' mad!
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator
is one of the suck up kind.. would she know how to run a hot dog stand ,, or even pour pizz out of a boot ... my opinion no.. she has zero understanding of economics parades with the vote in mind,, .. and postures with fidelity to the great fiat ,, keynesian squid,,,
she is also a tentative citizen of the united states of america but an enthusiastic one (in all but name) of israel. that explains a lot about a lot (although some can exaggerate even this).
Just in from WSJ:"'Volcker Rule' Stalls in Senate ".I guess the latest blackmail(the drop from 1150 to 1040)worked out well. Will let TD has his moment tomorrow at his pick(lol)
hey FB i got the same canned response from do-nothing feinstein. i understand the political and business elites no longer care about the rest of us, except that we don't reach them on the streets.
it's every man woman child and 'hood for themselves now. just more obvious with each passing day.
Let's see who deserves more respect. A genius, very soft spoken and humble economist and academic or some clowns on an anonymous blog posting comments. GEE THAT'S A TOUGH ONE!!!!
Idiot deluxe
soft spoken yes. humble, possibly. genius? i think we have to wait until at least 2012 or so to even have a clue.
...depends on what kind of a track record the academic genius has.
Yeah, in other news, almost no one (especially once you take out the Goldman guys) in the Obama Administration has any private sector experience of any kind.
In his autobio Obama calls his three months in the private sector as "working behind enemy lines."
Obama is the anti-Clinton. He doesn't care about making politics "work", splitting differences or the art of the possible. He's a committed radical, that's all he's ever been, that's the entirety of his personal history, that's what he's been promising since day one, and that's what he is now.
That anyone today actually expects or hopes for anything different is dumbfounding.
Enjoyed the read very much. I know several CEO's - the self made ones are dynamic, fast moving insightful smart people. There are a few turds. But I get the drift. Enjoyed it.
The Harvard/Yale/Princeton axis continues
Must have been nice to have been looking to attend those schools back when merit could get you in.
How many poor non-colored kids we hear of these days making their way into Harvard on grades and test scores? The classes are packed with the kids of these elites and their cronies.
Sure, they let the "diversity" admits fill up the roster, but good luck otherwise.
Maybe the FED should just hire an InterimCEO (http://www.interimceo.com) !!
I'm trying to remember the last time we had any prominent leadership outside of lifetime academia and politics.
Anyone? Anyone?
They certainly feather their nests, don't they.
this is a letter I wrote to martin wolf of the financial times today. I draw your attention to the last paragraph. sorry no spell check
the problem with your content today is that it ignores income distribution. when 90% of the population has had decreasing wages for 25 years they can't increase spending. The high earners will always save and invest. You want to fix this you have to put money back into peoples pockets. . Which means you need a government, federal reserve, that isn't held hostage to corporate interests. It means much less profits for the private sector. Of course billions are spent on lobby money to make sure this does not happen and the pork keeps flowing. By people I don't mean the top 5% of earners, I mean the middle 80%.
Simon Johnson estimates that cutting interest rates by the federal reserve has reduced spending power of the american public by 250 billion dollars, we know what it has done to asset prices, and the reduced interest rates are not being transmitted to the public (banks are decreasing lending). Therefore the net effect of federal reserve actions has in effect been to reduce the amount people have to spend. In fact the opposite has happend as people try to pay off their debts credit card companies have found ways around the regulations.
My own belief is that most of these policies are designed to fail so that special interest can keep their excessive profits (same thing happen with mortgage relief in the US. It was clearly designed to get the max money out of the strapped homeowner and then foreclose. (By the way now when there is a short sale we pay the banks a subsidy). We pay to alter mortage terms (forclosure costs the banks money so we pay them to act in their own interest). Policies like this are why there's no easy exit, and they make the situation worse.
As usual your classical view is enlightening, but you fail to take into account the expected behaviors of the actors who control/influence policy acting in their own self interest. This always is one reason classical economics fails. It's a nice model, but not reality.
There's a reason they always want economists running central banks. neo classical views ignore the actors. It is likley one does not need to be a sociopath to advance in the field of macroeconmics. To become a titan on wall street you must be a sociopath. A sociopth will always be able to get around the goal of the central banker esp if the models he uses don't account for the actions of the sociopath. If I was a sociopath (wall street titan) of course I would want a central banker in place who uses models that don't look into ways I can get around him. In a sense they make sure the central banker is naive. You need central bankers who think more like sociopths but work in the publics interest (I don't know if this can happen, because I don't think sociopaths can work in the publics best interest)
I WILL JUST SAY THIS. THE GREATEST STUDENT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF LEVERAGE IN CAUSING THE CRISIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. IN FACT HE DID THE EXACT OPPOSITE AND ENCOURAGED EXCESSIVE LEVERAGE.
MY ANALOGY IS THIS. HE IS THE ROBBER WHO SHOTS YOU STEALING YOUR WALLET. bUT HE TIES A TOURNIQUET AROUND YOUR LIMB SO YOU DO NOT BEED TO DEATH WAITING FOR THE AMBULENCE. THEN EVERYONE DECLARES WHAT A HERO HE IS LATER ON FOR SAVING YOUR LIFE. IGNORING THE FACT THAT HE SHOT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE.
THAT IS WHAT WE HAVE RUNNING THE FED.
Future CEO has to have few distinct properties:
1. Must be a bit dumber (or pretend to, and very good at it) than his current boss, then he's not perceived as competitor for bosses positions,
2. Must have very positive attitude, that means whatever bosses want to hear they will,
3. Team player, all his ideas (if there are any) must be attributed to the team headed by boss,
4. Understand and support idea that all non-executive employees are screwballs and must be pushed hard (showing efficiency)
5. Be relative, married to family member of current group of top managers,
6. Have crash course in BA with MBA title from Harvard (for big coms) or have the same from other universities for lesser companies (pecking order is important),
7. Certain ethnic origins are preferable
Since most CEO's it seems are completely oblivious to the realities of the world. Check
Since most CEO's don't mind debt, leveraging, and outsourcing
Check
Since most don't try to innovate, just cut costs
Check
Since most CEO's are pennywise, pound foolish and take millions in bonuses because they forwarded the short term thinking into almost oblivion but this quarter's numbers were huge....
If a CEO realizes his customers know no better, and he can continue whatever nefarious practicies he engages in, because afterall, they need him.
Yes, I think Ben Dover Bernanke is smart enough to be a CEO, the problem is, are any of our CEO's smart enough to run anything in the real world without hot money and all the fakery and outsourcing?
Nope...(or without painting broad strokes....almost none of them.)
Just for the record, I am glad that so many here understood what a catastrophe Bernanke is and tried to get their Senators to reject him. I wasn't trying to suggest otherwise. I just can't get the taste of his reappointment out of my mouth.
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