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Bernanke Wants The US President To Declare "Economic Emergencies" In Future Crises
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Presidents should get the power to declare economic emergencies along the lines to declare war, said former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday.
It might make sense to give “the president some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed,” Bernanke said at a conference. “The constitution gives the president significant flexibility to respond to military situations,” in part because they are chaotic, he noted.
“I am sure it is not politically possible, but it would be worth thinking about,” the former Fed chairman said.
– From the MarketWatch article: Presidents Should Be Able to Declare Economic Emergencies: Bernanke
For those of us who remain horrified and disgusted by the 2008-09 Federal Reserve and U.S. government bailout of the kleptocratic oligarchs who created the crisis, the above comments by the mastermind of this historic theft should be extremely concerning.
Although bankers and oligarchs got everything they wanted and more from the post crisis panic, what seems to bother Bernanke is that some of the response measures had to be pursued publicly. By calling for the U.S. President to declare economic emergencies in future crises, he is explicitly saying he doesn’t want Congress involved at all, even if just ceremonially. This man is a dyed in the wool fascist.
MarketWatch reports that:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Presidents should get the power to declare economic emergencies along the lines to declare war, said former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday.
While the Fed retains the authority it needs to respond to another financial crisis, financial crises “tend to have a certain chaotic element to them,” that no one can predict, Bernanke said during a panel discussion sponsored by The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy.
In light of this, it might make sense to give “the president some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed,” Bernanke said at a conference. “The constitution gives the president significant flexibility to respond to military situations,” in part because they are chaotic, he noted.
“I am sure it is not politically possible, but it would be worth thinking about,” the former Fed chairman said.
After the House initially rejected the proposal and stock markets tumbled, Congress reconsidered and the measure was signed into law and became the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
After coming across the above, I got to thinking about the process for declaring national emergencies. I performed a quick search and read a little bit about the National Emergencies Act of 1976. It was passed in response to a spate of national emergencies initiated by President Richard Nixon, and was intended to ensure Congress exerted more oversight on such declarations for obvious reasons.
Unsurprisingly, Congress hasn’t been doing its job. As USA Today pointed out in a special report last year:
The 1976 law requires each house of Congress to meet within six months of an emergency to vote it up or down. That’s never happened.
Here are some additional excerpts:
In his six years in office, President Obama has declared nine emergencies, allowed one to expire and extended 22 emergencies enacted by his predecessors.
Since 1976, when Congress passed the National Emergencies Act, presidents have declared at least 53 states of emergency — not counting disaster declarations for events such as tornadoes and floods, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents. Most of those emergencies remain in effect.
Even as Congress has delegated emergency powers to the president, it has provided almost no oversight. The 1976 law requires each house of Congress to meet within six months of an emergency to vote it up or down. That’s never happened.
In May, President Obama rescinded a Bush-era executive order that protected Iraqi oil interests and their contractors from legal liability. Even as he did so, he left the state of emergency declared in that executive order intact — because at least two other executive orders rely on it.
Seriously?
Invoking those emergencies can give presidents broad and virtually unchecked powers. In an article published last year in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, attorney Patrick Thronson identified 160 laws giving the president emergency powers, including the authority to:
• Reshape the military, putting members of the armed forces under foreign command, conscripting veterans, overturning sentences issued by courts-martial and taking over weather satellites for military use.
• Suspend environmental laws, including a law forbidding the dumping of toxic and infectious medical waste at sea.
• Bypass federal contracting laws, allowing the government to buy and sell property without competitive bidding.
• Allow unlimited secret patents for Army, Navy and Air Force scientists.
All these provisions come from laws passed by Congress, giving the president the power to invoke them with the stroke of a pen. “A lot of laws are passed like that. So if a president is hunting around for additional authority, declaring an emergency is pretty easy,” Scheppele said.
After President Richard Nixon declared two states of emergency in 17 months, Congress became alarmed by four simultaneous states of emergency.
It passed the National Emergencies Act by an overwhelming majority, requiring the president to cite a legal basis for the emergency and say which emergency powers he would exercise. All emergencies would expire after one year if not renewed by the president.
Bush’s Proclamation 7463 provides much of the legal underpinning for the war on terror. Bush cited that state of emergency, for example, in his military order allowing the detention of al-Qaeda combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and their trial by military commission.
The post-9/11 emergency declaration is in its 13th year. Eleven emergencies are even older.
The National Emergencies Act allows Congress to overturn an emergency by a resolution passed by both houses — which could then be vetoed by the president. In 38 years, only one resolution has ever been introduced to cancel an emergency.
Congress, useless as usual. Unless of course a corporate giveaway is crafted by lobbyists, in which case it flies through both chambers and becomes law instantaneously.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, President Bush declared a state of emergency allowing him to waive federal wage laws. Contractors rebuilding after the hurricane would not have to abide by the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires workers to be paid the local prevailing wage.
“The history here is so clear. The Congress hasn’t done much of anything,” said Harold Relyea, who studied national emergencies during a 37-year career at the Congressional Research Service. “Congress has not been the watchdog. It’s very toothless, and the partisanship hasn’t particularly helped.”
If anything, Congress may be inclined to give the president additional emergency powers. Legislation pending in Congress would allow the president to invoke an emergency to waive liability for health care providers and to sanction banks that do business with Hezbollah.
Scheppele, the Princeton professor, said emergencies have become so routine that they are “declared and undeclared often without a single headline.”
Bernanke may be a kleptocratic oligarch criminal, but stupid he is not. He knows exactly what kind of power an “economic emergency” would grant to the executive, which is exactly why he wants it to happen.
A Republic or Democracy this is not.
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FEMA- Federal Economic Mess Administration
There would be no need to declare "economic emergencies" if the Fed truly could control the markets "within 15 minutes". This is another oversight on Bernocchio's part because by saying this, he himself is proving he is a liar by admitting the Fed is powerless under such circumstances.
The guy is a moron - born with a silver foot in his mouth.
No one has put a bullet in Bernanke's skull yet.....WTF ???
NOW can it be audited?! Thanks Bernuckle head!
What -- according to the Bernanke the POTUS can declare war? I thought that was Congress' job. Oh well fuck me.
no .....
wait .......
FUCK YOU BERNANKE!
There are no words to accurately describe my burning hatred for this man....
"stupid he is not"
"Democracy this is not"
Did Yoda write this stuff?
I think bernanke is getting this stuff backwards. Since the govt and fed pretty much cause every economic calamity we have had since at least 1913, wouldn't preventing them from ever doing that again be easier than giving them new 'emergency powers'? I mean, Im not Ivy League PHD economist or anything, but in my simple mind it seems to be an error of logic to expect the entity that caused the problem in the first place to fix it if we just give them 'moar emergency power'
C'mon Haus, declaring was is so 20th century. How many countries have been bombed vs. how many wars declared?
Right but that is how government works. Create a problem. Rather than remove the cause create another solution to "fix" the first problem they created and so on ad infinitum until you have the runaway government Frankenstein monster we now have. The only question is whether that ultimately sows the seeds of its own destruction. One hopes so but the outcome seems far from certain at this point.
"What -- according to the Bernanke the POTUS can declare war? I thought that was Congress' job. Oh well fuck me."
Those were my thoughts until I read the piece and could not find an actual quote of Bernanke that included the phrase "declare war." It appears that the first sentence of the article written by Robb has been attributed to Bernanke as a direct quotation. There is no shortage of valid bases for criticizing Bernanke and the Fed. I do not want my rational disapproval of Bernanke and the Fed to be polluted by the integration of false or distorted information.
The Fed Chair should always be in charge, but when I, as Fed Chair, screw up...it should be the president's decision otherwise.
Good grief, idiot. Are you threatening the former FOMC chairman?
He didn't, but why not?
That's the primary action of government - to threaten.
Folks get the government they deserve. You and your fellow citizens deserve the Fed, which enjoys its current status thanks to an act of Congress.
I am getting the government others (you?) deserve.
With panarchism, you would have your government and I would be free from it.
Of course, most of you(?) aren't civilized enough for that.
So the battle still involves various levels of savagery. Thanks, dupes.
silver foot in his mouth?
I think you mean a golden fist in his ass.
kthx -- Goldman Sachs
Emergency conditions have existed since Sept. 2008. Assume Benny is thinking asset freezes and other capital flow controls.
Mr. QE speaks from the bunker!
And gold confiscation, just like in the 1930s. Why do we "give" them this power?
Nixon taking us off the gold standard in 1971 was only "temporary". Sounds to me like a president taking emergency economic action. No president since, including Reagan, has restored it.
Yeah, that's the ticket. Obama could declare a "War On Debt". It worked so well for the war on terra, war on drugs and war on poverty.
A single person/entity should have this kind of fucking power?
The fucking war powers need to be returned to fucking congress for Chist's sake!!!
Full frontal fascism/tyranny motherfuckers...
"The power you give me I will lay down when this crisis has abated."
While we're at it, any chance we can go for broke and return that power to the many states?
Yes, work to convince your state legislatures to request an Article V Convention and then ratify one amendment to terminate the Federal government. Thank you George Mason, 1791.
Fuck you, Bernanke!
Bernanke is outright dangerous.
He was. Now he's just a beared clown who can't get approved for a mortgage.
Bernanke deserves the death penalty
I would argue he deserves much much worse.
So they can pull off another TARP without any resistance. BRILLIANT!
Target to cut 'thousands' of jobs. http://reut.rs/1B0RKTJ
RECOVERY!!! but hey...at least they are chopping off heads from the top in corporate HQ cube land and India vs. the plebs that work here in Good Ol' Murica.
A banana republic comes to mind.
Outright theft by the banksters to support any loss in profits the oligarchs have.
Because fiat currency crises are unforeseeable. /s
his lips were shaking like Katherine Hepburn on a helicopter
The good king is man's fantasy.
When you print the money..you have to be creative on how to distribute it to your friends..without anyone else knowing what you are doing
This makes me nervous because the more power is put back on the democratic process the less responsive we will be in a crisis. We already saw the paralysis which prevented fiscal policy from being used to its best effect. Now if they try to put more authority on the elected officials, there will be even more possibility of delay in response. Remember when TARP failed and the market panicked? Congress wasn't prepared to act until they saw the perfectly predictable 1000 point per day drop in the dow, then they decided to do something.
... only if the culprit of the disaster, the federal reserve, is held as economic terrorists.
I anyone were but in a postion to recognise an imminent financial disaster Bernanke should be the go-to man.
He wrote the fucking script
Dear Bernank,
You should read my book. It is about how you can prevent the inefficiencies and corruption of centralized decision making.
Sincerely,
Adam Smith
How is FEMA going to react to an Economic Emergency, Ben?
Will the helicopters be spraying green, black. or red ink?
Only Congress has the authority to declare war you useless turd. These fuckers don't give a damn about what little is left of the CONstitution, and the American people are too stupid to care.
Yeah, I don;'t get it either, Doc. You think the President WOULDN'T take unilateral action the next time around? Of course he would.
Laws, the Constitution.... nigga, please. We're done with that shit, in case there's anybody left too stupid to recoginze that. We have elected kings/emperors/dictators now.
If Obama wasn't so damned lazy I have no doubt he'd just cancel the 2016 elections based on "emergency measures" and stay in office forever. I just thank God he hates the job. Next one we might not be so lucky.
Personally I think he loves the job. He gets to issue a decree without quetsion by the media, then he gets to have lavish vacations, fund raising dinners, and golf whenever he pleases. What's not to like? I am still not convinced that this guy will be gone from office in 2016, and his rabid followers will support the idea without question.
Oh, totally agree. If he WANTED to stay, he'd be able to stay, no doubt. I just think he wants to go off, start the Obama Foundation, rake in the donation millions, extort money from those who dare not to support him (a la Al Sharpton) and be the community-king-maker-in-chief instead of the king.
Yeah but the fist thing he sees when he wakes up in the morning is the Wookie. I wouldn't swap with him.
barry likes the job, he just doesn't like living in the white house. He realized that the front lawn of the white house is too small for a golf course.
I'd say the stupid ones are those who believe that "words on paper" are anything but.
The US Constitution is just another facade providing a handful of people with the power over the lives of all of the rest. To believe otherwise, is to not understand the impossiblity of "eternal vigilance" by individuals within a abstract collective outside of their direct control.
Wake up, N/A. The constitution does not provide anyone power over anything. It's no longer used as a basis for anything especially the US gov.
It's a shame we have a central planning mindset like Bernanke. He never really worked for a living. All of life was spent in academia.
Bernanke would have done well in the old Soviet Union.
There's always barber college
My name is Con, Neo Con.
Love it! Bernanke dispensing constitutional advice to our Constitutional "scholar-in-chief" or anyone who will listen, and all this time I thought he was just a lowly snake oil salesman. He also mentioned something or other about political im/possiblilities..., hell, by the measure of his own institutions existence, it should be abundantly clear that anything is possible!
What? someone said that Fiscal Policy was not there? WTF is that guy talking about. Fiscal Policy has been Exponentially Increasing since Ronald Reagan Budgets.
30 September 2014, Final Monthly Treasury Statement, Outlays and Revenues, Table 5.
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2014 = $3.5 Trillion (B. Obama)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2002 = $3.54 Trillion (B. Obama)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2010 = $3.45 Trillion (B. Obama)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2008 = $2.98 Trillion (G.W. Bush)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2006 = $2.65 Trillion (G.W. Bush)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2004 = $2.29 Trillion (G.W. Bush)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2002 = $2.01 Trillion (B. Clinton)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 2000 = $1.79 Trillion (B. Clinton)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 1998 = $1.65 Trillion (B. Clinton)
Total-Federal Government Actual Budget 1997 = $1.6 Trillion (B. Clinton)
$T Debt Added
J. Carter, ,$0.37 T (4 yrs)
R. Reagan, $1.69 T
G. H Bush, $1.4 T (4 yrs)
W. Clinton, $1.627 T
G. W. Bush, $4.357 T
B. Obama, $6.365 T (4 yrs)
B. Obama, $8 T (6 yrs est.)
Huh!??? At first glance the math does not seem to work? Some $$ seems to be unaccounted for..................
Ok. Now I'm scared!
( hold me )
So, I assume there is a crises coming.
Hey, it's takes too long just waiting around for a crisis to take advantage of.
OMG, a FEMA for the economy? Why? Because FEMA has proved itself so adept at addressing disasters? Well, maybe no. Because we won't even be having a discussion about bailing out the oligarchs? Well, maybe yes.
Its just tradition bitches, the Tribe wants all goyim to report to the FEMA camps when this ponzi explodes.
the bernank = one trick pony
there will be MOAR
just imagine this: if the Bernanke keeps this sort of cheerleader shit up, he'll get a roving book tour with Chelsea C. in no time.
Sure...
Because that's the big problem in the world...
The Top .000001% don't have enough authority.
...
...
NOT!
What's Ben doing these days? Hiding at the university? Working for Buffett?
Buying a nailgun would be nice
Participating in satanic rituals?
Drinking childrens' blood?
bernanke has been watching too much house of cards
I wonder what the great two-armed econimist Greenspan has to say about this. Greenspan - the one who wrote the essay about GOLD when he was in his right mind.
http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm
i hope he drops dead this am. i would drink a shot and do an irish jig.
The dollar won't rise forever, there'll be a top and a turnaround. The ponzi stock market won't rise forever forever, there'll be a top and a turnaround.
It's really that simple. But see, they're trying to seed all kinds of BS to try to rationalize the boom & bust cycle skimming scheme of productivity, to obfuscate the situation to be able to escape scrunity for perpetrating the scheme and even to twist it so they appear as rescuers and thus legitimate demanders of more control.
There's a relatively small but not insignificant list of people I'd like to see dragged from their home or office and into the street and have their head cut clean off their body with the event broadcast to the entire world. Ben Bernanke is on that list.
Someone please hit him with the nail gun ... I can't take it much more. How does this guy walk around and get people to listen to his drivel. His monetary actions have been proven to not work for Americans. It's just astounding at the level of stupidity involved here in this country when well over half of the people do not even understand that the Fed is a corporation and not part of the federal government.
This from one of the guys who pulled out the liquidity in 08 causing the recovery? The sub prime is contained guy.
Once a pimp?
So the Fed wants to remain independent, unless they fuck things up too badly, then they want the President to step in and fix it...
I see...
Your IRAs and pensions . . . are now property of the US govt. In exchange, you will receive a MyRA invested in guaranteed-for-life 0.5% interest per annum. Need more money? Play the lottery.
Want to eliminate chaos?
Give the prez authority to dissolve the Fed and the bankster cabal
Oops
Too late for today
Markits already returning to nonsense path
Ben is simply wanting the dumbfuk in charge to take the ridicule and blame instead of the Fed decisions. Odumbfuk wouldn't know a crisis if it smacked him in the face.
"Bernanke Wants The US President To Declare "Economic Emergencies" In Future Crises" Didn't that need to be done on December 23rd 1913?
Bernanke may have opened the flood gate with that suggestion. If the President can exercise executive power in this way , then the Federal Reserve System is not necessary as the sole owner of the franchise to issue U.S currency. Get rid of The Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve is a gigantic 3 card monte. They are arrogant to boot , not an appealing trait in anyone.
Oh how I long for the days when I was a *Conspiracy Theorist* whack job.
Now you're just a boring pragmatic realist.
You know, Bernanke's only about 60. Perhaps he can do a Nixon 1968.
Benny, don't worry, I'm sure the president will be declaring plenty of financial emergencies in the future thanks to your' exemplary guidance at the Fed. Why don't you just say "There's a terrible day of reckoning coming and it's going to require a lot of bailins to keep my banker buddies solvent"? I understand you would want to distance yourself and the Fed from that type of thing, being so dangerously unpopular and all, but someone's going to have to take responsibility Ben. That will be the Feds finest hour when everyone finally gets to see behind the curtain at all the evil thats been wrought. You deserve a front row seat for that Ben.
This is an emergency public service announcement beeeep
My fellow Americans due to a cyber attack that has been confirmed to have originated from Russia I must take the following extraordinary actions.
1) All withdraws from banks / atm's are now limited to $100 per day per household until further notice.
2) All Americans with the exception of those that are dual citizens must turn in their gold at an exchange rate of $300 dollars per ounce, which has been determined by the special section of the BLS to be fair market value as of this day or face criminal prosecution... that will be all. beeeep
So Bernanke watched House of Cards this weekend and got the idea from there... what's next, a jobs program called AmericaWorks (because Netflix said so)?
Nah, Warren Buffet probably called Ben up when he was soaking in his bathtub for some economic pillow talk.
Yes Bush with his BK oil company and Obomber with his blank economic resume should have complete control of the global economy. Bernanke should stick to forecasting the housing market. Idjit.
Keep stacking, bitchez!
:-)
Why is Bernanke worried about econonic emergencies, unless he knows one is fast approaching?
Even better idea - end the FED. It's the FOURTH central banking experiment in our history and being the longest lived one it has us on the brink of bankruptcy.
Funny he mentions like declaring war, another thing presidents are not constitutionally supposed to do.
But imagine if there were no fed and the federal government was not able to borrow. How many wars declared and undeclared would we find ourselves involved in? If taxes had to be raised or bonds issued, it would put an end to most of this socialist utopia we have the joy of living in now and decisions would have to be made for economic reasons and people would have to take responsibilty for themselves.
It seems to me the Fed is doing a pretty good job of ending themselves. Can't be long now...
Look Guys, Just Pass it... we'll learn what's inside later....
Yes, what we really need at this point is to give the president the power to assfuck the constitution during times of economic crisis which came about from assfucking the constitution. Kind of like the solution to too much debt is more debt. Central banker logic.
3GEE II
The original main tout for creating the FED was that it would make extreme financial volatility impossible. No more depressions, no more booms. That's obviously failed repeatedly. End the FED.
In other words, after Wall Street causes the next financial crisis, it wants the government to formally take full responsibility for the consequences and cleaning up the mess. The Fed wants to privatize real power and authority while socializing responsibility and accountability.
To which the government will respond: “Why bother with declaring an emergency? Go ahead and print all the money we want whenever you choose. We’re always OK with that, anytime”.
Gee, they don't have enough secretive power to keep things going for themselves. It isn't enough to be able to create money (we slave our lives away for) with the press of a key, it isn't enough to have bribed or blackmailed every high official, it isn't enough to be able to front run every trade, pass out insider info and flee to Israel if the water heats up. No, they now need to be able to do these things without oversight or observation. Chutzpah, thy name is Bernanko.
Declaring an economic emergency is just another way to say unlimited QE is on the way. In other words, this wouldn't change a thing since the government has no control over the Fed, it's owners, or it's member banks.
econ EMERGENCY....econ econ EMERGENCY
econ econ econ
so econ
Just put FEMA in charge of the economic emergencies. It's not like they could do a worse job than the FED.
FERAL - Federal Economic Recovery Assistance Liason - run by the Honorable Jon Corzine
If Bernanke had done the right thing, gold would command far fewer dollars.
"After the House initially rejected the proposal and stock markets tumbled, Congress reconsidered and the measure was signed into law and became the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP."
Remember the good ol' days when the american people were concerned about 700 billion? ahh...good times.
Ok, I think I agree with Benny...
Let's declare an economic emergency right now and, as 1st order of business, dismantle the Fed completely.
Self-preservation. The banksters don't want to hang or see the guillotine but they will. HOWEVER, if all the actions can be blamed on a President declaring an "emergency" and suspending normal law, well then it's the President's fault when chaos ensues, not the bankers just doing what they're told.
Everyone will now remember The Bernanke as the fraud that helped ruin the economy and pilfer it. He's trying to make sure Yellen doesn't get her reputation destroyed similarly.
Bernanke's prescription should be understood within the context presented by this article (modified by my comments there, of course): Financial Collapse Leads To War
"This man is a dyed in the wool fascist."
I remember themselves and Mises called them "Socialists":
Fascists and Nazists are Socialists with a a preference for military uniforms and a better sense of fashion.
But under the clothes they are the same as comunists.
"This man is a dyed in the wool fascist."
I remember themselves and Mises called them "Socialists":
Fascists and Nazists are Socialists with a a preference for military uniforms and a better sense of fashion.
But under the clothes they are the same as comunists.
"declare an economic emergency" shiiittttt they'll go door to door and demand payment for whatever bullshit they think you should purchase. Just stand on the corner and have everyone empty their pockets as they go by.
Hey Ben, no offense but you and Greenspan can go fuckyourselves...the post party comments of fucking dinks like this should be banned and ignored
This fucking putz BUN NAN KEY, was a supposed "student of the Great Depression", yet followed in the fotsteps of the Keyensian fucktards and sponsored governemtn intervention...why? because the fed demanded it on behalf of its controllling financial institutions, in order to pla the "too big to fail card" and therefore shift the losses on to the US Tax payer...fuck you Ben..you fucking bearded clam douche ..shut the fuck up
Maybe we subpoena you to start getting your faggot statements to unearth the inner workings of the kevorkian machine known as the fed...fucking ass holes
Bernanke built TBTF, started QE Infinty, and did not NAIL, or JAIL, Too BIG to FAIL. ERGO, Bernanke is indeed _stupid_,_stoopid_,_stoopider_ IMO. Why did Bernanke not let Wall Street fail the way it should have failed back in 2008? Why? Because he is _STOOPID_ & poorly educated.
The blood is reaching the river...