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Bernanke Says That Any Criticism Of The Federal Reserve Is Based On “Misconceptions”
Nice summary of facts pertaining Federal Reserve's ongoing failures. Michael didn't mention the Fed's unauthorized "mandate" to keep stock prices up. But I guess Bernanke thinks he's done a good job with that. Although why the Fed, or even the government, should be involved with that "free market" manifestation of price discovery is beyond me. (I suppose one could argue that higher stock prices helps saves jobs??) ~ Ilene
Bernanke Says That Any Criticism Of The Federal Reserve Is Based On “Misconceptions”
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economy Collapse
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is taking his show on the road in at attempt to help Americans feel better about the Federal Reserve. During a visit to the Fort Bliss headquarters of the Army’s 1st Armored Division this week, Bernanke held a town hall meeting during which he took questions from some of the soldiers. Bernanke tried to sound as compassionate as possible as he assured the soldiers that the Federal Reserve is looking out for the American people and is doing everything that it can to help create jobs.
At one point, Bernanke even made the following statement: "For a lot of people, I know, it doesn't feel like the recession ever ended." That probably helped a lot of people feel better. A few probably even had a good cry. But what Bernanke did not explain to the troops is that the Federal Reserve is very much responsible for the fact that unemployment is rampant, for the fact that the U.S. dollar is rapidly being devalued and for the fact that we have accumulated the largest national debt in the history of the world.
Ben Bernanke keeps insisting that the Federal Reserve has two main jobs (fighting inflation and keeping unemployment low) and that it is working incredibly hard to accomplish that dual mandate. During his visit with the soldiers he told them that the Fed is very determined to create more jobs for the American people....
"We at the Federal Reserve have been focusing intently on supporting job creation."
Well, if we are to judge the Federal Reserve by how well it has accomplished its "dual mandate", then the Federal Reserve has been an abysmal failure.
Since the Federal Reserve was created, the U.S. dollar has lost well over 95 percent of its value to inflation.
Is that something Bernanke should be proud of?
Of course not.
Okay, so the Fed has failed when it comes to keeping inflation under control.
What about jobs?
Well, the first decade of this century was the worst decade for job creation that the United States has seen since the Great Depression.
The sad truth is that a total of zero jobs were created last decade. The following is a quote from a recent article in Washington Monthly....
"If any single number captures the state of the American economy over the last decade, it is zero. That was the net gain in jobs between 1999 and 2009—nada, nil, zip. By painful contrast, from the 1940s through the 1990s, recessions came and went, but no decade ended without at least a 20 percent increase in the number of jobs."
So what kind of a grade should we give the Federal Reserve for the job that it has done?
How about a big fat F?
The Federal Reserve has been a failure of epic proportions. It greatly contributed to the Great Depression (even Bernanke admits this), it created the conditions for the financial bubbles that greatly contributed to the financial crisis of 2008, and it has brought us to the verge of yet another gigantic financial crisis.
But Ben Bernanke believes that all of us that are criticizing the Fed are just ignorant. He thinks that we just don't understand the Fed properly. During a recent question and answer session, Bernanke stated the following....
"I think that the concerns about the Fed are based on misconceptions"
Oh, if only the rest of us understood how the Fed works and how they really care about the American people. Then everything would be okay.
Not.
During that same session, Bernanke insisted that the Federal Reserve only has the purest motives....
"Our motives are strictly to do what is in the best interest of the broad public and I believe that our efforts to stabilize the financial system, which were ultimately proved successful, were very much in the interest of the broad public"
According to Bernanke, those that work at the Fed are unselfish guardians of our monetary system who are fighting for truth, justice and the American way of life.
Okay, perhaps I am exaggerating just a bit, but you get the point.
Bernanke is trying very hard to convince all of us that the Federal Reserve is just misunderstood and that we should just trust what the "experts" are doing.
So what will the plan be if the financial crisis in Europe blows up?
Well, during his visit to Fort Bliss one of the soldiers actually asked him about that. The following is his answer....
"Although the Fed would obviously do all that we could to maintain stability and to keep monetary policy as easy as necessary to try to minimize the damage, I don't think we would be able to escape the consequences of a blow-up in Europe"
Oh, he would keep monetary policy "as easy as necessary".
Isn't that lovely - I bet that will be great for the value of the U.S. dollar.
Bernanke also told the soldiers that he believes that happy days are ahead for the U.S. economy....
"I do believe we will return to a healthier growth rate. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t"
So we should just trust Bernanke, right?
He has never been wrong before, right?
Well, let's check the record....
In 2005, Bernanke said that we shouldn't worry because housing prices had never declined on a nationwide basis before and he said that he believed that the U.S. would continue to experience close to "full employment"....
"We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis. So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path, though."
In 2005, Bernanke also said that he believed that derivatives were perfectly safe and posed no danger to financial markets....
"With respect to their safety, derivatives, for the most part, are traded among very sophisticated financial institutions and individuals who have considerable incentive to understand them and to use them properly."
In 2006, Bernanke said that housing prices would probably keep rising....
"Housing markets are cooling a bit. Our expectation is that the decline in activity or the slowing in activity will be moderate, that house prices will probably continue to rise."
In 2007, Bernanke insisted that there was not a problem with subprime mortgages....
"At this juncture, however, the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained. In particular, mortgages to prime borrowers and fixed-rate mortgages to all classes of borrowers continue to perform well, with low rates of delinquency."
In 2008, Bernanke said that a recession was not coming....
"The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession."
A few months before Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed, Bernanke insisted that they were totally secure....
"The GSEs are adequately capitalized. They are in no danger of failing."
For many more examples that demonstrate the absolutely nightmarish track record of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, please see the following articles....
*"Say What? 30 Ben Bernanke Quotes That Are So Stupid That You Won’t Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry"
*"Is Ben Bernanke A Liar, A Lunatic Or Is He Just Completely And Totally Incompetent?"
But after being wrong over and over and over, Barack Obama still nominated Ben Bernanke for another term as Chairman of the Fed. It is hard to put how stupid that was into words.
Look, if someone wrecked your car again and again would you keep handing that person your keys?
Bernanke made another statement during his visit with the troops this week that was really bizarre....
"The Federal Reserve is not perfect ... but at this point, if you look around the world, you see no alternative"
He has got to be kidding, right?
Of course there are no other alternatives for us to look at! Only a handful of nations on earth do not have a central bank at this point. Iran, North Korea and a handful of others don't have a central bank dominated by the international banking community but basically everyone else does.
Just because nearly every nation on earth has a central bank does not mean that there are not alternatives to the Federal Reserve system. I detailed a plan the other day that would transition us away from the Federal Reserve system. It most certainly can be done.
But right now, most of our politicians are standing up for a system that allows private central bankers to spend trillions of dollars bailing out their friends while the rest of us suffer.
The other day, an article by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders appeared in the Huffington Post that detailed what was learned during a very limited audit of transactions conducted by the Federal Reserve during the recent financial crisis.
According to Senator Sanders, the Federal Reserve made 16 trillion dollars in secret loans to big corporations, Wall Street banks, foreign nations and wealthy individuals during the financial crisis....
"...we learned that the Federal Reserve provided a jaw-dropping $16 trillion in total financial assistance to every major financial institution in the country as well as a number of corporations, wealthy individuals and central banks throughout the world."
Senator Sanders also says that the audit revealed that many of those running the Fed are from the same institutions that the Fed has been bailing out....
"The GAO also revealed that many of the people who serve as directors of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks come from the exact same financial institutions that the Fed is in charge of regulating. Further, the GAO found that at least 18 current and former Fed board members were affiliated with banks and companies that received emergency loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis."
Wait - isn't there a huge conflict of interest problem there?
Of course there is.
But neither major political party is making a stink about it. Sadly, Senator Sanders says that the audit found that there was "instance after instance" where individuals used their positions at the Fed to benefit their own firms....
"The GAO has detailed instance after instance of top executives of corporations and financial institutions using their influence as Federal Reserve directors to financially benefit their firms, and, in at least one instance, themselves."
Wow - you would think that this scandal would have been reported on the front page of every major newspaper from coast to coast. But that didn't happen. Both major political parties continue to insist that there is nothing wrong with the Federal Reserve and that the Fed is doing a wonderful job.
It really is sickening.
Look, we need to educate the American people about the Federal Reserve and we need to make control over our currency a major issue in the 2012 campaign.
The American people should demand that the issuing of all United States currency be immediately returned to Congress as the U.S. Constitution requires.
The American people should demand that no more debt-based Federal Reserve Notes be issued and that from now on only debt-free United States money be issued.
The Federal Reserve has a track record of nearly 100 years of failure. It is time for it to be shut down.
The choice, America, is up to you.
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General "Buck" Turgidson: Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.
all bernanke is trying to do is to keep the greenspan bubble from popping ...
The only misconception here is that somebody, somewhere thought the FED had a fucking clue......................
Bernanke is a mendacious ass.
Tradition?
“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”- Voltaire
“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Steven Biko
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”- Voltaire
“All paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value-zero.” -Voltaire
Inflection Point
A little dirty secret for you guys, Bernanke is a day trader.
it's the magical misery tour!
" ... The Magical Misery Tour is coming to take your savings away
coming to take them away ..."
(I suppose one could argue that higher stock prices helps saves jobs??) ~ Ilene
**********
It likely does help save jobs but if it does-it means the jobs it saves are not neccessary anyway--
Again, far too many of the otherwise would be saver victims lose practically everything with each bubble burst. Do you suppose the Fed could consistently and perpetually suspend stock prices? And if it could, of what benefit would it be to itself and its accomplices whose superior wealth and power depend on preemptive volatility positioning?
Do you suppose the Fed could consistently and perpetually suspend stock prices? And if it could, of what benefit would it be to itself and its accomplices whose superior wealth and power depend on preemptive volatility positioning?
**********
No I do not think the Fed could consistently suspend stock prices and the so called jobs it saves by goosing market action-are nothing more than a consequence of the action-
The Fed cannot create jobs-but they can sure blow bubbles that create jobs-until now that is--
The American people should demand that the issuing of all United States currency be immediately returned to Congress as the U.S. Constitution requires.
The American people should demand that no more debt-based Federal Reserve Notes be issued and that from now on only debt-free United States money be issued.
****************
This is true-but the issue must also be nailed down and locked to Gold-
Never allow Politicians to have control of the money lever-we have spent decades watching them pave roads and provide circuses in order to buy votes from grateful taxpayers-
The United States Note co-existed for almost 100 years alongside, at times, silver coins, gold coins, silver certificates, etc. Multiple currencies allows for personal freedom of choice for the use of currency and savings.
I do not think there needs to be a single solution to the question of currency. But the abolition of the FRN is a priority of the highest order.
Multiple currencies allows for personal freedom of choice for the use of currency and savings. I do not think there needs to be a single solution to the question of currency.
*************
I agree with that-providing the currencies are allowed to die and the holders forced to lose if they tank-
If they were freely traded and the currency does not necessarily have to be in coin or paper-then absolutely-let the market decide-
Marginalize and deflect. Those tactics no longer work on the enlightened.
Razorthin - "Marginalize and deflect. Those tactics no longer work on the enlightened."
It is the unenlightened we must Free. Asking people to question their understanding and the themes that have been instilled by statist power is the long hard road all Patriots must travel.
“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.”- Voltaire
“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” Steven Biko
Pointing fingers is easy. What is most curious is the unenlightened are always exposing the symptoms or actions that support an unsustainable PONZI scheme. Worse, they're insisting more regulatory power for the criminal wrongdoers will right the situation, further enslaving themselves. They see a burning tree, failing to see the conflagration around them. It is this obfuscation and misdirection that has served the money power so well.
If we truly want to restore real Free Market Capitalism and our Constitutional Republic, we must first eliminate the most pernicious corrupting force of all. END THE FED.
See:
Money Power And The Central Bank: Life Is But A MEME
END THE FED: THE FIRST STEP IN RESTORING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC
After next election - You have to be crazy to question the Fed - auto-commit to institution, comrade.
"Mispercptions" - ha! Everyone is beginning to understand that there is rampant criminal fraud throughout the financial system and across all levels of the Federal Government. As a small example, here is Nancy Pelosi simply refusing to acknowledge that insider trading is wrong. Here's a radical new "regulation" that I would recommend:
The Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States Congress should be prohbited from making illegal trades or profiting from insider information. Can we not agree on that? Or is that crazy 'anarchist' talk??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nzKtmPFVGic
Markets work best at determining prices when exchanges are allowed to occur freely. When one sees a sudden rise or drop in a stock, it provides one with immediate information that can inform one's decisions. But being artificially forced to wait for an official public release of information hampers one's decision making.
Furthermore, it's not clear who exactly the victim of insider trading is. Causing the value of someone's stock holdings to drop is not victimizing them: they still own the stocks, after all. They do NOT own the values of their stocks. Other people's subjective appraisals of your property exist in other people's heads and are NOT your property.
To not be allowed to sell one's stocks - to not be allowed to use one's own knowledge and property for one's benefit - is a tyrannical assault on liberty and a violation of human nature. If you want executives to not engage in insider trading, then as a shareholder you should instruct your board to insist on punitive contracts incentivizing the desired behavior. Calling armed goons to kidnap or shoot people because you don't like the peaceful exchange that they engaged in involving their own property is an absurd solution.
Finally, insider trading can be another legitimate component of an executive's income. What's the best way to reward and retain valued executives? With cash bonuses? With stocks? Or with insider trading privileges? This is an entrepeneurial problem to be solved through competition, not a problem to be solved with government guns and cages.
I agree with you completely, in the absence of government intervention vis a vie bailouts when fuckups inevitably occur. No bailouts, no restrictions except on property held in common.
Most excellent, Doctor!
Are you kidding? What's the point of getting the job if you can't make it pay?
Besides, I wish they'd all do it, then perhaps voters would wise up and stop being so damn evil.
Why does he judge the inflation mandate from the inception of the fed, and the second mandate by the last decade (except he "arbitrarily" selected 99-09? Cherry picking anyone? How about we judge the two mandates by against the opposite time-frames? Wow, now the inflation mandate looks great (measured according to central planning data, not barbarous relics). And the jobs mandate? It looks great too!
It's easy to make mandates look good when the standard shifts to accomodate. See: the official definition of CPI. See also: the official definition of unemployment.
Lipstick on a pig.
Tell it to the Judge.
So there is at least a chance of a serious traffic accident that might break his printer finger?
The value of the dollar has dropped 95% since the Fed's inception. That works out to an average of 3% per year. That is about the target of most central banks. Whether that is acceptable or not is up for debate, but mainstream economists would consider this to be a success not a failure.
That would be a cogent argument if it had not led much of the masses to the slaughter in the equity markets in a frantic attempt to compensate for the "nominal theft".
Yeah, it's only on average 3% theft of savings per year (not to mention, of course, the economic and financial malinvestments and distortions also induced by said currency depreciation).
Why, who could that possibly hurt?
How about, on average, I steal 3% from your bank, IRA, 401k and any other savings or investment accounts? Would that be "acceptable" to you?
END THE FED.
period.
"Keeping inflation low" in a sick system that demands inflation is a blatant contradiction. And the unemployment thing; well that's working out splendidly. Greenspan would make you think; he must understand what he's saying, right? This guy tells you it's all bullshit and he doesn't realize it.
The Manipulation of markets are always harmful.
Based on Ponzi dynamics, credit expansions and speculative manias are naturally self-limiting. Credit expansions expand exponentially until the debt they generate can no longer be serviced and the greatest fool has committed himself.
Check out the Nicole Foss video at the end of: Central Banks, Bubbles And The Coming Unwind
*
THE ROOT OF OUR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, MILITARISTIC WOW'S IS AN EVIL, MONETARY SYSTEM. EVERYTHING ELSE IS A SYMPTOM OR AN ACTION THAT SUPPORTS IT. AT THE HEART OF THIS SYSTEM ARE THE CENTRAL BANKS; THE FED, THOSE WHO CONTROL IT AND THEIR DISHONEST, DEBT BASED MONETARY POLICIES. AS SUCH; REGULATIONS, LAWS AND THE CAPTURE OF GOVERNMENT IS FOR THEIR BENEFIT. AN ACCOUNT OF THE PEOPLE HAS NO PLACE IN IT. INDEED, IF THE PEOPLE WERE ITS PRIMARY CONCERN, THE WORLD WOULD BE MORE FREE, LESS VIOLENT AND MORE PROSPEROUS.
THE PRIVATELY HELD FED IS THE TOP REGULATOR OF ITS TBTF OWNERS AND MEMBER BANKS. IT'S CREATION OF MONEY OUT OF THIN AIR; LOANED, AT INTEREST, TO THE SOVEREIGN IS THE MOST INSIDIOUS OF CRIMINAL PONZIS FOR WHICH ALL ITS FAUX REGULATIONS AND FINANCIAL MISALLOCATION FOLLOWS.
THE FED'S FIAT PETRO-DOLLAR AND IT’S DEBT SLAVERY ECONOMIC MODEL, IS THE MOST POWERFUL CENTRALIZING FORCE KNOWN. IT IS THE GENESIS OF FUNDING FOR THE ELITE MONEY POWER, THEIR CONTRIVED SCHEMES OF CONTROL, AND A SYSTEM OF INCREASING DEBT AND GLOBAL WAR.
TO FREE OURSELVES, RESTORE FREE MARKET CAPITALISM AND REESTABLISH OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC, WE MUST FIRST ELIMINATE THE MOST PERNICIOUS CORRUPTING FORCE OF ALL. END THE FED! - Inflection Point
See:
Money Power And The Central Bank: Life Is But A MEME
END THE FED: THE FIRST STEP IN RESTORING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC
Mainstream economics is nothing but crackpot batshit-insane pseudoscience and numerology.
I can't think of even one redeeming quality of Bernanke or the Fed.
Bastiat was more intellectually advanced centuries ago than these assclowns will be in their lifetimes.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." ~ Frederic Bastiat
Legal vs. lawful
Our problem is a societal crisis as our criminal leaderships self serving behavior, is done with the consent of "We The People"/you. See: RAPE OF THE REPUBLIC
That is because everything in the "main stream" today is actually in the middle of a gushing, fetid flood of intellectual and moral sewage.
You went to public schools too?!
Proof from Scripture
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm
1
In order to prevent misconception and thereby to anticipate a common popular objection which is wholly based on a misconception it should be premised that when we appeal to the Scriptures for proof of the Church's infallible authority we appeal to them merely as reliable historical sources, and abstract altogether from their inspiration.
Blindman. How ironic. More hope and faith and reliance on "infallible authority".
ben is the high priest / pope, doing god's work
and in infallible fashion. we have seen this before.
the money system is the modern religion. no criticism
of the actions of the fed are from conception, only from
misconception. that is the faulty logic of power and authority.
it obviously isn't really logic at all, just baloney.
if he believes what he says he should explain how the
growing debt based system is to sustain itself when the
growth needed cannot occur because the credit markets
have lost all faith in his money system as it relates to
the real world, the real economy and real people. but
that question must be born of some misconception that i hold
somewhere because the fed is infallible and their system and
policy are divinely conceived and perfect, not to be criticized
or questioned. i believe in freedom of religion and if he
wants to believe in the religion of bubblenomics and fed fiat
purgatory i wish him luck. i just don't want to have pray
at his church or tithe at his collection box. in america
that makes you a outlaw, heretic and a sinner and it is
unconstitutional.
With you now. Misconception.
"If the America people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
-Thomas Jefferson
...nuff said.
This is a great quote, but misattributed to Jefferson. "Deflation," as it pertains to financial matters, didn't enter into the vocabulary until the 1920s.
Here's an actual Jefferson quote about banks that I like:
"The system of banking we have both equally and ever reprobated. I contemplate it as a blot left in all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction, which is already hit by the gamblers in corruption, and is sweeping away in its progress the fortunes and morals of our citizens."
It behooves one to look up the description of "Discount" in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discount
In this case it is not the discounted price of a good you receive from a retailer, but a financial time delay mechanism whereby settlement is delayed by the retailers acceptance of a credit note as payment.
Here's Jefferson's warning:
“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.
We have 98 years of discounting to settle; plus other scores.
This is the funniest post ever. JOKES! "I swear we are not thieves. Believe us!"
why would they try to steal the wealth of nations?
to what purpose? hmmm..
that this man can lie to the public without being beaten to a pulp is proof of how ignorant the public is. not to mention gullible.
the federal reserves mandate is inflation targeting and preventing defalation price instability ( not price stability since theyre happy with bubbles) .
that this man can lie to the public without being beaten to a pulp is proof of how ignorant the public is. not to mention gullible.
the federal reserves mandate is inflation targeting and preventing defalation price instability ( not price stability since theyre happy with bubbles) .
Ben Bernake is a Terrorist,and needs to be tried and convicted by the people steals from.
He is a "Finacial Terrorist".
Not by the people he represents,
hope his pecker gets stuck in a money printing machine and gets ripped off.
Eventually the B-man and his Minions will be spending a lot of time in front of the shreader, I think it would be more effective. especially given he doesn't need a printer, it's just a red button on the keyboard next to the escape key.
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