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Ben Bernanke Pens First Blog Post, Defends Fed, Says He "Was Concerned About Seniors"
It would appear the $250,000/hour speaking opportunities for Ben Bernanke have ground to a halt, and as such, the former Chairsatan has decided to dispense his wisdom for free to anyone who cares, by becoming a blogger at Brookings. And, not surprisingly, in his first post, the person who less than a decade ago said the following, in exactly those words...
Well, I guess I don’t buy your premise. It’s a pretty unlikely possibility. 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.
... is out and about defending the Fed and central banks from pushing rates so low, in Europe you are now paid to borrow money, and are charged to save.
So, to those who are too lazy to click on the following link to the Brookings blog where Bernanke is now blogger emeritus, here is the punchline.
In what can only be described as a litany of defensive insecurity, Bernanke launches a full-on assault on all those who accuse the Fed of crushing the economy, which now includes not only tin-foil fringe blogs of the Austrian economics persuasion, but such "very serious people" as Guggenheim's CIO Scott Minerd who over the weekend said "The long-term consequences of global QE are likely to permanently impair living standards for generations to come while creating a false illusion of reviving prosperity" and rhetorically asks "Why are interest rates so low? Will they remain low? What are the implications for the economy of low interest rates?"
His response to this rhetorical question, is the following: "If you asked the person in the street, “Why are interest rates so low?”, he or she would likely answer that the Fed is keeping them low. That’s true only in a very narrow sense."
Actually, it is true inn every sense. What is Bernanke's loophole? He introduces the concept of the equilibrium real interest rate. In Bernanke's words:
Except in the short run, real interest rates are determined by a wide range of economic factors, including prospects for economic growth—not by the Fed.
To understand why this is so, it helps to introduce the concept of the equilibrium real interest rate (sometimes called the Wicksellian interest rate, after the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Swedish economist Knut Wicksell). The equilibrium interest rate is the real interest rate consistent with full employment of labor and capital resources, perhaps after some period of adjustment. Many factors affect the equilibrium rate, which can and does change over time. In a rapidly growing, dynamic economy, we would expect the equilibrium interest rate to be high, all else equal, reflecting the high prospective return on capital investments. In a slowly growing or recessionary economy, the equilibrium real rate is likely to be low, since investment opportunities are limited and relatively unprofitable. Government spending and taxation policies also affect the equilibrium real rate: Large deficits will tend to increase the equilibrium real rate (again, all else equal), because government borrowing diverts savings away from private investment.
He is absolutely right. What he just fails to notice is that the entire world is gripped in ZIRP, and increasingly NIRP, is that the current bubble implosion aftermath, now 7 years after the Lehman collapse, is merely the 3rd consecutive bubble burst in the past 15 years. In other words, the Fed may spout whatever mumbo jumbo it wants about why its response to the crisis was required, what it has zero defense against is why its only policy under the Greenspan "Great Moderation" paradigm has been to inflate bubbles, and replace a post-bubble vacuum with another bubble, ultimately leading to a complete and global economic halt, and a world in which central banks now have to monetize all net developed world issuance!
In essence there is no Weimar state any more - the entire world has become Weimar, and the only reason why no currency is hyperinflating in isolation is because absolutely everyone is doing the same cardinal monetary sin at the same time.
Of course, none of this will get much exposure.
What will, however, is the former Chairman's surprisingly defensive pivot in which it is almost as if he sense what is coming over the horizon when he unexpectedly says it wasn't his fault the entire nation's senior population was decimated due to his and Greenspan's ludicrous policies.
When I was chairman, more than one legislator accused me and my colleagues on the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee of “throwing seniors under the bus” (to use the words of one senator) by keeping interest rates low. The legislators were concerned about retirees living off their savings and able to obtain only very low rates of return on those savings.
And the punchline:
I was concerned about those seniors as well.
Perhaps he is referring to seniors such as Omaha Octagenarians who had tens of billions in investments in a financial system that would have gotten insolvent overnight if he hadn't bailed it out?
But if the goal was for retirees to enjoy sustainably higher real returns, then the Fed’s raising interest rates prematurely would have been exactly the wrong thing to do. In the weak (but recovering) economy of the past few years, all indications are that the equilibrium real interest rate has been exceptionally low, probably negative. A premature increase in interest rates engineered by the Fed would therefore have likely led after a short time to an economic slowdown and, consequently, lower returns on capital investments. The slowing economy in turn would have forced the Fed to capitulate and reduce market interest rates again. This is hardly a hypothetical scenario: In recent years, several major central banks have prematurely raised interest rates, only to be forced by a worsening economy to backpedal and retract the increases. Ultimately, the best way to improve the returns attainable by savers was to do what the Fed actually did: keep rates low (closer to the low equilibrium rate), so that the economy could recover and more quickly reach the point of producing healthier investment returns.
Well thank you for the admission that there really is no getting out of a world in which three consecutive and ever larger bubbles has burst, and now with central banks all-in to support the last one, the final outcome will be a global catastrophe with a good global war thrown in for good measure, unlike any seen before.
Yet the funniest part of Bernanke's diatribe is when he tacitly shifts away from the Fed as the culprit for all that is wrong, and implicitly blames the government.
A similarly confused criticism often heard is that the Fed is somehow distorting financial markets and investment decisions by keeping interest rates “artificially low.” Contrary to what sometimes seems to be alleged, the Fed cannot somehow withdraw and leave interest rates to be determined by “the markets.” The Fed’s actions determine the money supply and thus short-term interest rates; it has no choice but to set the short-term interest rate somewhere. So where should that be? The best strategy for the Fed I can think of is to set rates at a level consistent with the healthy operation of the economy over the medium term, that is, at the (today, low) equilibrium rate. There is absolutely nothing artificial about that! Of course, it’s legitimate to argue about where the equilibrium rate actually is at a given time, a debate that Fed policymakers engage in at their every meeting. But that doesn’t seem to be the source of the criticism.
The state of the economy, not the Fed, is the ultimate determinant of the sustainable level of real returns. This helps explain why real interest rates are low throughout the industrialized world, not just in the United States. What features of the economic landscape are the ultimate sources of today’s low real rates? I’ll tackle that in later posts.
Let us guess: features such a Congress which is now completely and utterly incapable of passing even one law perhaps because the passage of any real reforms is vastly unpopular for any politician (just look at Greece), and after all why bother: "get to work, Mr. Chairman" has been the operative principle of the US Congress since 2009, a Congress which has had some $4 trillion in deficit funding to keep America going, monetized by Bernanke's own Fed.
But don't expect any mention of that in Bernanke's blog. And likewise, don't expect your comment to appear on the Brookings blog.
Comments are welcome, but because of the volume, we only post selected comments.
By selected they of course mean only those which praise the man who threw America's seniors under the bus, er pardon, didn't.
And certainly not any comments which remind the broader public of all previous Ben Bernanke greatest hits of whicht he following is a small sampling:
7/1/05 – Interview on CNBC
INTERVIEWER: Tell me, what is the worst-case scenario? We have so many economists coming on our air saying ‘Oh, this is a bubble, and it’s going to burst, and this is going to be a real issue for the economy.’ Some say it could even cause a recession at some point. What is the worst-case scenario if in fact we were to see prices come down substantially across the country?
BERNANKE: Well, I guess I don’t buy your premise. It’s a pretty unlikely possibility. 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.
10/20/05 – Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress
House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic fundamentals.
11/15/05 – Confirmation Hearing before Senate Banking Committee
SEN. SARBANES: Warren Buffet has warned us that derivatives are time bombs, both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system. The Financial Times has said so far, there has been no explosion, but the risks of this fast growing market remain real. How do you respond to these concerns?
BERNANKE: I am more sanguine about derivatives than the position you have just suggested. I think, generally speaking, they are very valuable… 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. The Federal Reserve’s responsibility is to make sure that the institutions it regulates have good systems and good procedures for ensuring that their derivatives portfolios are well-managed and do not create excessive risk in their institutions.
3/6/07 – At bankers’ conference in Honolulu, Hawaii… as delinquencies in the subprime mortgage sector rise
The credit risks associated with an affordable-housing portfolio need not be any greater than mortgage portfolios generally.
3/28/07 – Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, Congress
Although the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market has created severe financial problems for many individuals and families, the implications of these developments for the housing market as a whole are less clear…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.
5/17/07 – Remarks before the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago
...we believe the effect of the troubles in the subprime sector on the broader housing market will likely be limited, and we do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system. The vast majority of mortgages, including even subprime mortgages, continue to perform well.
8/31/07 – Remarks at the Fed Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole
It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve--nor would it be appropriate--to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions
1/10/08 – Response to a Question after Speech in Washington, D.C.
The Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.
2/27/08 – Testimony before the Senate Banking Committee
I expect there will be some failures [among smaller regional banks]… Among the largest banks, the capital ratios remain good and I don’t anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large, internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system.
4/2/08 – New York Times article after the collapse of Bear Stearns
“In separate comments, Mr. Bernanke went further than he had in the past, suggesting that the Fed would remain aggressive and vigilant to prevent a repetition of a collapse like that of Bear Stearns, though he said he saw no such problems on the horizon.”
6/10/08 – Remarks before a bankers’ conference in Chatham, Massachusetts
The risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so.
7/16/08 – Testimony before House Financial Services Committee
[Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are] adequately capitalized. They are in no danger of failing… [However,] the weakness in market confidence is having real effects as their stock prices fall, and it’s difficult for them to raise capital.
Full Bernanke blog post here.
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Needs the rest of his pecker surgically removed for spawning this bollocks. Maybe the crown jewels too.
Ben Bernanke can't answer comments right now, he's busy dressing up as an owl to give head to DSK at Bohemian Grove after they sacrifice a few unchosen children.
How does a Jew say "Fuck You?" ......... "Trust Me"
Fuck You Bernanke; you piece of shit.
P.s. http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/03.15/policies.html
How to hang a Jew, "In debt we trust"
Boiled Hemp Rope, stretched for a day, and a 6 foot drop will rightly do the job.
I was thinking more like the lines on your neck and a mirror, but whatever floats ur boat.
"???? ????" ......... "?????? ???"
While Bernake is talking BS one of the contenders for the chair is speaking the truth.
“Bitcoin offers the prospect of necessary and important disruption in finance for the benefit of buyers and sellers rather than financiers and middlemen.” - former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers.
Fuck that motherfucker.
If you ran a farm like the Fed runs the markets, everything would wither and die before harvest.
Well said!
Based on Bernacke's lack of talent at reading the crystal ball (or his ability to lie with a straight face), why would anyone ever pay to hear this man speak? And he was worried about the seniors? BS - this man threw the majority of people under the bus to protect the 1 percenters' portfolios.
The 250K a speech is deferred compensation....
payback....
kinda like Clinton's Foundation getting foreign money AFTER she stops being Sec of State....gee, this is a tough one.
Fuck that motherfucker too!
Sure, lets take something that was between 3 and 5 % for 70 years.....then slam it to zero because Goldman and Freddie
ran a mortgage bundling racket which fell apart and took down the overleveraged gluttoness firms and caused systemic risk.
Then lets keep those rates at zero, and FUCK everyone who saved their money....THEN, lets promote 2% inflation to hurt them somemore wihile we keep rates at zero...
Central Planners INTENTIONALLY hurting one group at the benefit of another....
Lets not forget all the industries in retirement areas wondering where the spending power went....
and the consumers who could be spending disposable and discretionary income they dont have...what is the impact there Ben and Janet?
May you be beaten with many canes and walkers by grandmothers and grandfathers Ben.
May you be smote in the head repeatedly with cans of cat food and then forced to eat it until you choke on it.
Fuck You Ben!
Ben Bernanke: "Is this gonna hurt?"
The Hangman: "No one's complained yet!"
Fucking liar.
Just for that, torture before hanging.
Ben Bernanke was concerned about one thing--saving global banks--and the proof that he lied to Congress to do so is absolutely irrefutable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPUKy-3OfY
He should be jail awaiting trial for treason.
As if Ben Bernanke writes that blog himself. Most likely it's ghost-written by an intern.
But no. The only people he was concerned with were the powerful people who could guarantee him a sinecure at Brookings as a reward for services rendered during the crisis.
The Bernanke family pharmacy stayed in business by ripping off the old folks of Dillon, South Carolina, on prescription medication. Care about old people? Next he'll be claiming he cares about southern whites.
http://bornagainclassics.com/Books/Money-The-Greatest-Hoax-on-Earth-red.pdf
"inflation expose, money, the greatest hoax on earth"
merrill m.e. jenkins sr. 1971
he must hang........ after a fair trial.....
Slam the shit out of the people you are concerned about and keep doing it forever. Good looking out , you slimy shit.
looting, thieving fuckers like this should be flayed alive
That man needs his nads nailed to a tree stump, smeared with honey, fire ants and given a very dull hatchet.
someone should be thrown under the bus
Bernanke should be sitting in a prison cell for perjury.
His comment about not monetizing debt was outrageous.
This is not the Federal Reserve of the Volcker era.
The Federal Reserve is a den of lying currency destroying thieves.
"... I was concerned about those seniors BOND HOLDERS as well."
Fixed for ya
Heh Ben how many shares of AIG did you and your fellow FOMC board members hold ? The only seniors you gave a rats ass about are your fellow FOMC elitists.
GTH.
AC/DC pay tribute to Ben Bernanke
He was a bull’s dream, he kept the markets green
He was the best damn Fed Chair that I’ve ever seen
On weekend football pitches, he was quite a surprise
Scoring goals with those scrawny thighs
Had Mother Nature pulling out her hair
First time a dove ever killed a bear
‘Cause markets were shaking, with trend lines breaking
The shorts were quaking as QE was baking, and you
Hooked me all-in long
Yeah, you had me 100% long
Working double time his bear destruction line
He was one of a kind, a squid with a spine
Wanted no pause between each QE course
Made gluttons of us, then came back with more
Had to hose me down between the POMO rounds
Then I shorted RING, and bought lots of bling
'Cause the QQQs weren’t braking, the bears were aching
Even Big Blue awakened, V-Bottoms fakin’-out, and you
Hooked me all-in long
Oh yeah, you
Had me 100% long
Yeah, you hooked me
It can be proved that it was Raba who ruled that he is not liable, for he said: If one bound his neighbour and he dies of starvation, he is not liable.
Raba said: If one thrust his neighbour into a pit, in which there was a ladder [so that he could have climbed out], and then another came and removed it, or even if himself hastened to remove it, he is not liable [for the victim's death], because when he threw him in he could have climbed out.
http://come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_77.html
When you read all his comments over an extended period of time you recognize all he is doing is protecting the established order no matter what the state of Fraud is going on at that moment - he enables "more" fraud to take place - that is his job - a virtuous circle of fraud enablers
In the spring of 07' Grants Interest rate Observer published multiple stories on specific CDO's and their status - it was chilling - i have all of them printed
Obama is a fraud - Holder is Fraud - The Fed - The SEC is a Fraud - the entire system!
The equilibrium interest rate is the real interest rate consistent with full employment of labor and capital resources, perhaps after some period of adjustment.
Can there ever be any hope when those who "take control" are so clueless about what they seek to control?
INTEREST collections must exactly equal DEFAULTs experienced for any properly managed Medium of Exchange (MOE). This is necessary to guarantee zero INFLATION by the relation INFLATION = DEFAULT - INTEREST.
To set INTEREST collections by any other measure is misguided and counter productive (unless you view non-zero INFLATION as productive).
Regarding the seniors: In a properly managed MOE, INFLATION is zero, all the time, everywhere. Thus, putting their money under a mattress is a rational choice. "Loaning" their money out for an INTEREST return is like playing the lottery. They put their money at risk and could lose it through DEFAULT. On average, DEFAULTs and INTEREST are equal. But in "all" particular examples you either enjoy INTEREST, or you incur DEFAULT - INTEREST (which you don't enjoy).
But when you have a mismanaged MOE that tries for 2% INFLATION and delivers 4% INFLATION, seniors have little choice but to play the lottery. Otherwise, they are guaranteed a 2% to 4% leak in their store of wealth (or in periods like the late 70's, a 12% or greater leak in their wealth bucket).
What is scarey is how clueless the Bernankes of this world can be.
If the fed has no choice in how it must respond, this also means they aren't needed. A simple computer could do the job.
Your voting buttons seem to be turned off... accident? Comment too pungent for the new ZH?
Try voting this up or down with the arrow keys...
Of course you can uparrow or downarrow with menu options but it is a pain in the arse so most do not bother.
Honestly, anyone who would go to his blog has to be brain dead!
Well good thing he cleared that up,i was starting to think that he was some kind of corrupt schizo-righteous psyco thats been planing to destroy the world ever since he had his feelings hurt in highschool, kids can be so susceptible.
Wicksell did not work in a world of Unconstitutional Government funding itself by by-passing Taxation through Representatives accountable to voters. Both Inflation and QE are designed to circumvent Voter accountability of the Executive for spending and to free the Executive from scrutiny of the Legislature.
The Fed is simply a means to destroy the Constitutional Structure holding Leviathan to account
So, he basicaly admits to fucking the children?!?!?
Why isn't this motherfucker dead?
Anybody know where he likes to dine out?
OR
What'll you give to be his pizza delivery guy?
A bit weird that a recently retired FedHead is now blogging. Isn't that sort of bad form in regards to him inevitably criticizing the current FedHead.
Or does she just need the backup?
I bet there is no comment section on the bottom of his blog.
Well I, for one, am quite pleased to see Bernanke's Blog rolling out.
The Onion has gone virtually without competition for too long now.
Is Bernanke demanding to paid in US Dollars or real money ?
you gotta love bankster Ben. He tried scatsex ones, but he could shit pennies only.
People like Bernanke and assorted politicians are clinicly sociopathic. It's no surprise he's sticking to his story, despite the fact that everyone knows it's a big coverup and a lie. it's just what they do.
Money power agents like Bernanke will never admit the truth. Their power of private credit emissions is good for privateers and their in-group. Credit powers want these things: 1) Credit issued by private banks for the easy profit of said credit issuers. 2) Swaps of different kinds of “financial assets.” This is magick by another name, the province of wizards. 3) Control of society with private in-group, using money power means, and war when necessary.
Here’s a quote from article:
“a Congress which has had some $4 trillion in deficit funding to keep America going, monetized by Bernanke's own Fed.”
Of course Washington is too big and out of control, that was foregone conclusion when money power agents fully codified their control in 1912 via the 16’th, 17’th amendments, along with Federal Reserve Act and IRS. Yes, they were primarily Jewish agents. Yes, they un-did Federalism and the promise of America.
In a credit/debt system the main method with which people may have savings, is for government to deficit spend. If you doubt this, please become conversant with Godley’s sector equations.
http://www.concertedaction.com/2012/07/19/martin-wolf-on-wynne-godleys-sectoral-financial-balances-approach/
Either government deficit spends, or somebody goes bankrupt; or the economy exports in surplus and grabs another economy’s money. Debt instruments always demand more credit money in return than what they initially was created upon hypothecation. Public debts may never be repaid, so that may keep the game going for awhile, allowing private debts to be paid – but also funding bankers with usury. This is the crux of Keynsianism, where Keynes saw the flaw, and came up with a stop-gap policy.
Private bankers will not admit to structural flaws in their system, nor will they give advice to government to deficit spend properly. These agents will never admit to running a giant historical scam. It is the biggest scam, welcome to the matrix.
Jew’s invented this credit system while in Amsterdam after Vasco De Gama’s voyages around Southern Route. Shipping metal and spices East/West by Portugal via Southern Route destroyed the previous Jewish rental monetary scheme, namely the exchange rate differences between silver and gold via overland caravan routes. Jewish agents also harvested populations with differences in intangible (ledger) and physical money. Metal money was always international and hence outside of law. Metal could always be melted down and spirited out of country, to then destroy local money supply. Debts also can always be canceled with real assets, part of the magick swapping and transfer power. During depressions, real assets like land, or your life, are always transferred. This usury power is forbidden in the bible, and is considered murderous sin.
Money is part of the commons – this point is undeniable - and to say otherwise means one is either a dupe or a fool, or is benefiting from the scam. Money should not be international credit.” It should not be metal. Remember metal was the main rent scheme for thousands of years. Highest form of money is law, and a sovereign privilege (the commons) of a law abiding people, and law should control moneys attributes: 1) Volume 2) Path 3) Type
How again exactly do the private money power agents control Volume, Path and Type? They do it for their benefit. They do it by using YOUR signature authority to emit private credit.
Why do we give our money power over to private agents; these “self appointed” agents whose goals are inimical to advancement humanity. They will kill by the millions to keep their con-game going. They will pay off and pervert the press to cast hypnosis on the population. They will, and do, fund economics departments, to then pass on bad doctrine to keep the hypnosis game going.
www.sovereignmoney.eu
this is from the link at the bottom of your post: www.sovereignmoney.eu
"..
The Neo-Austrian School and New Currency Theory share a similar criticism of fractional reserve banking. Strangely enough, Neo-Austrians blame the problem on government and central banks rather than the banking industry.
The Neo-Austrian idea of money and banking reform then is free banking, i.e. a system without legal-tender laws and central banks, on the basis of a return to a 100% gold reserve. This appears to be quixotic, but is a revelation to others.
.."
You say - "Stangely enough, neo-Austrians blame the problem on guv and central banks RATHER than the banking industry"
.. I say - Strangely enough, your cited web page lists neo-Austirans, but not Austrians.
Now, why would that be?
I can't think of any Austrians that ignore the banking industry in their analysis. Read Rothbard on the history of banking families or the book on the FED creation "The Creature From Jekyll Island"
You cite two neo-Marxists, Martni Wolfe and a Professor Huber. Not really gonna fly on ZH.
You might be more comfortable at state worshipping sites, like Ellen Brown's.
Anytime you want to screw something up just put an academic in charge. Book smart but totally lacking in common sense.
Words cannot express how much i hate this fucker. I would beat this fucker silly if i ever encountered him. Lying, corrupt, piece of excrement. When he dies i will piss on his grave
TYLER, YOU OWE IT TO YOUR LOYAL ZEROHEDGE FOLLOWERS TO MAKE A FRAMED COPY OF ALL THESE COMMENTS AND SEND IT TO BERNANKE AT THE BROOKINGS ASYLUM, REGISTERED MAIL, REQUIRING RETURN RECIEPT SIGNATURE. PLEASE CONFIRM YOU WILL TAKE THIS ACTION. OTHERWISE YOU ARE ONLY PANDERING YOUR FOLLOWERS FOR PURPOSES OF GARNERING ADVERTISING REVENUES, PROFITS AND NO ALLEGENCE TO THE GOAL OF FREE EXPRESSION AND SEEKING TRUTH. PLEASE CONFIRM THIS REQUEST AND YOUR ZEROHEDGE FOLLOWERS WILL APPLAUD YOU AND WILL MAINTAIN AN INTEREST IN ZEROHEDGE. OTHERWISE YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN BERNANKE. DO IT, FOR GODS SAKE DO IT !
Bernanke has never seen a Senior he wouldn't put thru a MEAT GRINDER.
For their own good, of course.
This man has repeatedly proven himself to be a financial sociopath. While he may have a lot to say, it certainly isn't worth the time listening or reading. Wouldn't even waste the time of a conversation over a cracker-barrel. Just another "Snakes In Suits" type.
WEll you failed in the grandest style in history us old folks use to eat cat food. Thanks to you and the current fed we can no longer afford cat food.
"... the only reason why no currency is hyperinflating in isolation is because absolutely everyone is doing the same cardinal monetary sin at the same time."
obviously not true, as gold (and many other commodities too) is going down, not up, as you could expect in inflationary environment
there is no high inflation because most of people are poor, they could not afford higher prices; and business knows it
growing poverty in society is keeping inflation under control, wealth is concentrated in hands of few reach people, and these tycoons can inflate prices of luxury goods only
The meme that gold "does well in inflation" is a false one. Gold's performance is tied, inversely, to real interest rates. Gold does well in deflation; not particularly well in inflation. Remember that during inflation, not all prices rise equally or proportionately. The increase in prices can be concertrated in particular goods and services.
No Disqus comments are yet shown on his blog site, they are all "on hold". Well, I left him another.
His column is basically content-free. He doesn't mention ZIRP. He doesn't mention leverage and risk management. He doesn't mention diluting the currency. Of course it's only his first column.
I wonder if Brookings is going to sell advertising on his page?
What the FED really did was what they were told by the entities that own them. Ben is just a lackey for the big banks, big FAMILIES that own the banks.
He is so full of shit pretending he is anymore than a terrible mouthpiece. His owners are the only ones ALLOWED TO CHARGE INTREST. Think about it, in normal times banks would pay YOU interest to borrow your money and put it to use. They were the middlemen between your capital and the person that needed a loan. ZIRP has eliminated you, the saver from the process.
Whats the difference between the big banks and what the mafia use to do? They print money pay of government officials, loan it out at %5 for thirty years so you can RENT your house and pay property taxes for them, or 15% on credit cards, or 150% with Payday loans, all the while printing money out of thin air.
The thing that pisses me of the most about Ben is his insistence to keep writing or speaking. Go take your money and shut the fuck up. You are and always has been a front man, a liar, you are irrelevant. Any asshole pathological liar could do your job, and you weren't even good at it. When caught in a lie your lip would quiver. Thus your Family name Ben "the quivering lip" Bernankio.
More snake oil from those in 'charge' attempting to placate the masses and shift blame where blame resides. Oh, Mr. Central Banker, your 'conscience' should have awoken many moons ago. You WILL be held accountable for your deceit and supprerssion of the masses. You already checked-in and no one in 'there' gets out alive. Best wishes to you and yours...
I was going to retire until ZIRP. I saved just like the economists suggested expecting a small return to bolster my income during my "Golden Years". Blew me and others I know out of the water. Now I have to continue work as long as health permits. At this present moment they are not replacing the retiring worker BUT they are getting down to the bare numbers where they will have to start rehiring soon. Many in my position are really PO'ed. We want to retire but cannot. Even though they are pushing stocks up most of us are smart enough to know it won't last and they'll be coming back down soon.
Youngsters who need the remaining jobs like these and are blaming the retirees when they should be blaming the Fed and it's enabler the government who wants to continue their empire wars and never ending borrowing.
The sad thing is, even if we all just up and retired there still would be a serious job shortage of jobs as most of the middle income people need the middle income jobs that were exported to increase corporate bottom lines and even more important grease those american managers pockets with ridiculous bonuses.
They screwed their own Ponzi Schemes like Social Security, blaming oldsters while their spending spree continues. This temporarily pits generation against generation but slowly the young are starting to see the light. It's too late, in my calculations much misery will be foment upon the ex middle income folks that had nothing to do with any of this. Again they will try to divert the blame to the oldsters but soon it won't work
I am hoping I live long enough to witness some lamp pole party's.
when does Barry hand him the Medal of Freedom?
"If you asked the person in the street, “Why are interest rates so low?”, he or she would likely answer that the Fed is keeping them low.
If you asked the average person on the street what is the breadth of Kim Kardashian's ass, they would likely tell you with pinpoint accuracy to the millimeter, her exact size.
Butt if you asked them anything about interest rates you are only going to get, 'duh', and thinking that they actually know what the FED does in any, way, shape or form is pure fantasy, based on hope and likely some very good hallucinatory drugs.
Benny was concerned over seniors just like a concentration camp commandant was "concerned" over the Jewish inmates he was charged with....Bernanke has no shame, no humanity, he's an outsider to the human race...He always had his nose up the asses of his overlords...
BEN BERNANKE JOINS CAST OF SESAME STREET
The retired FED president found a new professional challenge in the role of “Heli Ben” - a sweet grandpa by day and a voracious monetary predator by night. In the opening scene, Heli Ben starts with a powerful quote: “Open your legs Dollar Mamma”…
Source: www.financialpaparazzi.com
The .gov and FED were concerned about seniors, but they dont use that word with its common intent.
Here is an example: I was concerned the child in the street was going to get hit by the oncoming cement truck, but I just watched him get plowed anyway.
Jun2 2007: "the troubles in the subprime sector seem unlikely to seriously spill over to the broader economy or the financial system."
Re Bernanke Concerned about Seniors...
Yes - "concerned" that the Senior Tranches in all those fraudulent MBSs that his buddies on Wall St ran off with might also blow-up - leaving the FED on the hook - before they had a chance to "muppet-dump" 'em
I wonder if Benny remembers what QE was all about?
"Precisely one month later, unclear why, the Fed changed course 180 degrees, and instead of dispensing "tough love" and going with a market-oriented means to fixing the economy, one which however would have wiped out all bank shareholders, Bernanke unleashed central-planning unlike anything even seen in the USSR. Not only that, but we also know what QE is by what it isn't"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-04/february-7-2009-bernanke-admitt...
When he says "Seniors", he means the Senior Partner execs at "The Squid" & JPM. All other "Seniors" who cares? Trading money for nothing and the chics are free. WTF.
www.traderzoo.mobi
Sure, I was concerned (makes quotes marks in air) about them. But I didn't care (same) about them.
Just looking at the caption photo gives me diarreah...
#shitfacemotherfucker
Another ZH love fest, I see. There are certain types of posts I just can't wait to read!
Ben Bernanke,
Real asset price histories are VERY instructive
http://www.showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
but are rarely shown to the people.
I call this massive deception by omission.
What is your view, please?
First!
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/ben-bernanke/posts/2015/03/30-why-interes...
Hang 'em
What a fucking douche nozzle!
Turns out Bernanke was not concerned about seniors but was aware of the concerns.
Here is Bernanke in a 2011 press conference: “We are quite aware that very low interest rates, particularly for a protracted period, do have costs for a lot of people. They have costs for savers. We have complaints from banks that their net interest margins are affected by low interest rates. Pension funds will be affected if low interest rates for a protracted period require them to make larger contributions. So we are aware of those concerns, and we take them very seriously. I think the response is, though, that there is a greater good here, which is the health and recovery of the U.S. economy.”
This was not some accident. They targeted one group so they could pay the other group.
We have complaints from banks that their net interest margins are affected by low interest rates.
Remember, capitalism is 2 years. A person creates a bank with $1M. Collects a 4% interest spread. Enjoys 10x leverage (loans 10 times his capital), thus realizes 40% interest. 40% doubles in 2 years at which point the $1M is reclaimed. The $1M gained rides to secure "capitalist" privileges forever after ... with none of his own capital at risk.
That said, you can see if this interest spread gets squeezed, the capitalist has to wait more than these 2 years to be fully privileged.
Squeeze these guys enough and ... oops! ... no more capitalism.
Sounds good to me.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has closed 511 failed US banks from 2008 to 2014. The aim of the money trust, the banking cartel, the Too Big To Fails, is to eliminate the competition, and that includes the smaller banks. The bigger question is not whether banks will be sacrificed; the question is which banks will be “allowed” to fail.
http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-bank-failures-in-the-united-states.php
George F. Smith of Barbarous Relic wrote yesterday in The Fall of Tyranny, The Rise of Liberty :
Central banking "originates in the wish of big bankers to create a government scheme to protect and amplify their wealth, while promoting it as a necessary corrective to what they say is an inherently flawed free market that suffers from periodic crises. This is often cited as the rationale for central banking. The central bank is supposed to eliminate crises by coordinating and restricting the credit expansion (monetary inflation) of its fractional-reserve member banks. In the event this doesn’t work, the central bank bails out the biggest banks under the flag of “lender of last resort.” ...
“The free market penalizes fractional-reserve banking with bank runs and currency drains from less-inflationary competitor banks. Historically, bankers resented this. Governments, always looking for revenue, sided with the bankers and established central banking cartels. Governments changed money itself from a commodity to something the banks could inflate at will (paper and digits), with another government agency acting as an ‘insurer’ of digital deposits to calm the natives. (See Rothbard, pp. 134-137)
“The counterfeiting cartel called the federal reserve system has survived for over a century. What would its economic report card look like? It penalizes savers through deliberate monetary debasement. It makes honest price discovery impossible. It has created numerous financial crises, including two devastating ones. After the crisis hits it finds fault everywhere except home in its Keynesian hunt for causes. The bought economics profession becomes the barking dogs on the hunt. Those closely connected to the Fed, such as the government, benefit from the Cantillon Effect. ...
All folly must be funded, and the Fed is front and center with its “accommodating” printing press. But the Fed is not just an economic calamity for most of us — it has blood on its hands. Mostly, it’s the blood of everyday people, the ones who ultimately bail out the big boys involuntarily, with their money and their lives. Central banking is the pillar of the welfare – warfare state.
Without the Fed and its cohorts elsewhere, we likely would have had a relatively peaceful twentieth century instead of the record-setting slaughter we experienced." ...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/03/george-f-smith/the-fall-of-tyranny
Bernanke was so concerned about seniors that he shrunk the purchasing power of their pension checks by 25% by creating trillions of funny-money dollars and loaning them to his fellow international bankers at zero percent interest.
"the Fed cannot somehow withdraw and leave interest rates to be determined by “the markets.” The Fed’s actions determine the money supply and thus short-term interest rates; it has no choice but to set the short-term interest rate somewhere. So where should that be? The best strategy for the Fed I can think of is to set rates at a level consistent with the healthy operation of the economy over the medium term, that is, at the (today, low) equilibrium rate. There is absolutely nothing artificial about that! Of course, it’s legitimate to argue about where the equilibrium rate actually is at a given time, a debate that Fed policymakers engage in [IN TOTAL SECRECY] at their every meeting. "
-Fixed it for ya, Ben...
The logic underlying the core point fails: "The equilibrium rate is necessary to determine the money supply, but the market can not set the equilibrium rate (and therefore the money supply) because the Fed has to set the equilibrium rate "somewhere" (to repeat Ben's exact words); and the Market is inferior to the 12-member FOMC in determining where that "somewhere" should happen to be...
Do I have that straight?
This guy's a Charlatan - So, it's only fitting that he would be Fed Chairman during the same period of history that the USA would voluntarily elect an even BIGGER charlatan as its President...
He should try visiting 40 square miles of run down industrial wastleand surrounding Detroit or maybe visit New Orleans area next.Na,prices never go down.
Mr. Bernanke is a lying thief for self, empire, and Zion.
The banksters need to repay us.
"Mr. Bernanke, your guillotine appointment has been confirmed. We'll see you soon."
We are about 5 years away from the first QE that was touted as putting a brake on the deflationary storm. He was still around to see the unintended consequence of monetary flows under even more captures by the Banksters. Yet He charged ahead with this distorted Keynesian experiment.
Unintended Consequence is a sick euphemism concoted by slick minds that perpetuate an Economy to be under captive by Banksters/Elite.