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This Is How Many Times Blogger Bernanke Use The Word "Debt" In A Post About Secular Stagnation

Tyler Durden's picture




 

By now everyone, any by everyone we mean even that pillar of orthodox "economic wisdom" , McKinsey, has realized that the reason the world is blanketed in a period of secular stagnation and soon, contraction, is simple: an unprecedented, record amount of debt:

... debt which the world should have restructured as part of the resolution of the global financial crisis, however neither was the financial crisis resolved, nor was the debt overhang fixed. In fact, in all his brilliance, then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke decided to "fix" record debt with more debt and so did all his other central bank peers leading to this:

 

In fact McKinsey could not be clearer, even for those central bankers who at first, or second, sight may suffer from congenital comprehension defects:

 “High debt levels, whether in the public or private sector, have historically placed a drag on growth and raised the risk of financial crises that spark deep economic recessions.”

So considering that in his latest blog post "Why are interest rates so low, part 2: Secular stagnation" none other than the abovementioned Ben Bernanke decides to tackle precisely the topic of global growth, or lack thereof, and specifically "secular stagnation", one would think that debt would be the dominant word under discussion in Ben Bernanke's latest Brookings Institute post.

One would be wrong. Here is the number of times Ben Bernanke used the word debt in an article that has 1299 words.

 

1

... or a "hit rate" of 0.08%.

This is the context:

But if we are really in a regime of persistent stagnation, more fiscal spending might not be an entirely satisfactory long-term response either, because the government’s debt is already very large by historical standards and because public investment too will eventually exhibit diminishing returns.

He is, actually, correct in this sentences. It is everything else that he is incorrect about.

For example error #1:

The Fed cannot reduce market (nominal) interest rates below zero, and consequently—assuming it maintains its current 2 percent target for inflation—cannot reduce real interest rates (the market interest rate less inflation) below minus 2 percent.

of course the Fed can reduce rates below zero: just look at all of its foundering central bank peers in Europe. NIRP is coming to the US, and Bernanke knows it. Furthermore he is being utterly disingenous:

I’ll ignore here the possibility that monetary tools like quantitative easing or slightly negative official interest rates might allow the Fed to get the real rate a bit below minus 2 percent.

Oh, ignore QE please. After all it has led only to a tiny $4.5 trillion Fed balance sheet. What's that: like 25% of US GDP? Just ignore it. Not like the Fed can't raise rates and disappear trillions in bank excess reserves in "15 minutes." Of course, the S&P will be trading at 15 as well, but who cares.

The farce continues:

Does the U.S. economy face secular stagnation? I am skeptical, and the sources of my skepticism go beyond the fact that the U.S. economy looks to be well on the way to full employment today.

It sure does:

 

Oh, and please ignore the following too.

 

And this:

Just keep repeating: on way to "full employment." Affter all Ben Bernanke said it.

First, as I pointed out as a participant on the IMF panel at which Larry first raised the secular stagnation argument, at real interest rates persistently as low as minus 2 percent it’s hard to imagine that there would be a permanent dearth of profitable investment projects. As Larry’s uncle Paul Samuelson taught me in graduate school at MIT, if the real interest rate were expected to be negative indefinitely, almost any investment is profitable. For example, at a negative (or even zero) interest rate, it would pay to level the Rocky Mountains to save even the small amount of fuel expended by trains and cars that currently must climb steep grades. It’s therefore questionable that the economy’s equilibrium real rate can really be negative for an extended period.

The days of the Rocky Mountains may well be numbered. And then the bubble master himself says something truly profound.

I generally agree with the recent critique of secular stagnation by Jim Hamilton, Ethan Harris, Jan Hatzius, and Kenneth West. In particular, they take issue with Larry’s claim that we have never seen full employment during the past several decades without the presence of a financial bubble. They note that the bubble in tech stocks came very late in the boom of the 1990s, and they provide estimates to show that the positive effects of the housing bubble of the 2000’s on consumer demand were largely offset by other special factors, including the negative effects of the sharp increase in world oil prices and the drain on demand created by a trade deficit equal to 6 percent of US output. They argue that recent slow growth is likely due less to secular stagnation than to temporary “headwinds” that are already in the process of dissipating. During my time as Fed chairman I frequently cited the economic headwinds arising from the aftermath of the financial crisis on credit conditions; the slow recovery of housing; and restrictive fiscal policies at both the federal and the state and local levels.

Ironic Bernanke should say that, because what the world will most remember him for are the sayings on the linked page: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's Greatest Hits. Everyone should read these to recall what the Fed chairman was really saying.

But the punchline, and where Bernanke's true colors once again shine, is in his final paragraph:

My greatest concern about Larry’s formulation, however, is the lack of attention to the international dimension. He focuses on factors affecting domestic capital investment and household spending. All else equal, however, the availability of profitable capital investments anywhere in the world should help defeat secular stagnation at home. The foreign exchange value of the dollar is one channel through which this could work: If US households and firms invest abroad, the resulting outflows of financial capital would be expected to weaken the dollar, which in turn would promote US exports. Increased exports would raise production and employment at home, helping the economy reach full employment. In short, in an open economy, secular stagnation requires that the returns to capital investment be permanently low everywhere, not just in the home economy

Clearly that theory has worked so well for all hyperinflating countries who took Bernanke's advice and crushed their currency only to not reap the numerous benefits of monetary collapse and the resultant economic devastation.

However, where everything clicks, is Bernanke's insistence that it all goes back to crushing the dollar, i.e., printing so much of it that it is devalued. Which in turn brings us to Bernanke's far more seminal and important speech from November 2002, "Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here", in which he laid out very clearly how this entire episode of market, financial and economic idiocy will end.

... the effectiveness of anti-deflation policy could be significantly enhanced by cooperation between the monetary and fiscal authorities. A broad-based tax cut, for example, accommodated by a program of open-market purchases to alleviate any tendency for interest rates to increase, would almost certainly be an effective stimulant to consumption and hence to prices. Even if households decided not to increase consumption but instead re-balanced their portfolios by using their extra cash to acquire real and financial assets, the resulting increase in asset values would lower the cost of capital and improve the balance sheet positions of potential borrowers. A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman's famous "helicopter drop" of money.

And there you have it: when all else fails, the helicopter will come out. A helicopter that will drown the world in crisp $100 (and soon $100,000,000,000,000) bills, which in turn will hyperinflate everything. The debt included.

Is it thus any wonder then why Bernanke used the word "debt" only once in a blog post that was all exclusively about debt?

 

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Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:54 | 5947029 Big Corked Boots
Big Corked Boots's picture

Fuck Bernanke.

The only reason he's blogging is to ensure he has a bit of relevance - otherwise, people might forget about him and he wouldn't get to bill out $250k for a speech. Or get invited to cool parties.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:10 | 5947065 Pinto Currency
Pinto Currency's picture

 

 

Don't see Russia, Iran or Syria on the list of indebted nations.

Hmmmm.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:01 | 5947174 MarkD
MarkD's picture

Cuz if we get our way they won't be around much longer

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:58 | 5947266 layman_please
layman_please's picture

helicopter drop doesn't equal to the tax cut. the FSA doesn't pay taxes, they will miss out, and working people tend to save. instead, distributing it equaly to everybody will make sure at least the FSA/EBT crowd (50+ million?) will take it to the walmart and that will rise the velocity of money, which is the tiny thing missing that we don't have significant inflation, yet. high velocity of money can make one dollar seem like 10. imagine all these trillions starting to gain speed, if confidence is lost and everybody heads for tangible assets.

of course the real reason they don't drop cash from the helicopter, is that everybody will receive equal amount, and not based on the income as with the tax-cut. mega-wealthy will never let it happen.

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 00:38 | 5947588 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

If illegal aliens who never worked here nor paid taxes can get tax refunds then why cannot the FSA?

You are correct that everyone would get an equal benefit (remember the Bush rebate, go out and shop young man?) but it will be peanuts compared to what the bankers will make plus it will float the system for another few days.

As for the mega-wealthy not letting it ever happen, they don't care about paper.  Paper is a spoon to them while paper seems to be Zion to the rest of us.  In the matrix a spoon will do whatever you think it will do.  Most people think it will sit there and be a spoon.  TPTB will bend the spoon and use it to scoop up real wealth.  For the plebs paper is a trap that is used over and over, like Zion.

Have a cookie.  You'll feel right as rain.  Acid rain that is.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 22:19 | 5947332 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

Add Lybia (pre-invasion) to this list,

I didn't see Cuba there, either. Perhaps they peaked in 1959.

I wonder how many times (Bevis) Benjamin Shalom Bernanke mentioned the word 'CREDIT'. How about 'FED INTEREST RATES'? Doesn't the FED EXTEND CREDIT to the U.S. TREASURY? Well, about 18.2 TRILLION fedscrip, so far, I guess.

SHHH! Mention 'DEBT' only ONCE, and let the suckers who are on the hook to pay the INTEREST (how many times did he say THIS word?) focus on a NEW TERM, called 'SECULAR STAGNATION' (I.E., getting sick of spending debt instruments on bullshit; and crap designed to fail; like Kia and Government Motors Cars, or on porn and hookers and Cocaine).

(I Didn't mean it, ZH! Hookers and Cocaine are all good, and if you have an iPhone, you can make amatuer porn movies...) <s> 


 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:51 | 5947150 glenlloyd
glenlloyd's picture

He better be flying that fuckin copter of his over my way, damn county raising property taxes again, my assessment went up +24% cuz everything is so awesome and real estate is doing so well...fucker.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:16 | 5947432 blowing winter
blowing winter's picture

I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.nettrader2.com

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:55 | 5947030 gmak
gmak's picture

No shit, McKinsey.

 

I don't know why it takes so many words and so much time to state and realize the obvious. We are what we produce. You can't spend what you don't make without stealing from your future self. To pay it back creates a mathematical and physical necessity to lower the standard of living.

If that same debt is used instead to create more productive capacity, then (since we are what we produce) it provides the self-referential means to retire that debt. At the same time this improves the standard of living because the money created through credit is not used to consume but to produce.

No matter what TPTB say, there is only one agenda: To inflate away the promises made to the income-earners, which will enable those who own most of the assets to wind up owning all of the assets. Throw some robotic cultivation into the mix and all that population becomes unwanted.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:04 | 5947056 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Full marks. The only question is how our masters will exterminate us when we've outlived our usefulness as slaves---gas chambers or good old fashioned famine and plague.

(Ebola's not quite ready for prime time. That's why they've hung on to smallpox.)

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:55 | 5947036 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

I like this:

"If US households and firms invest abroad, the resulting outflows of financial capital would be expected to weaken the dollar, which in turn would promote US exports."

So, when hundreds of US companies build massive factories in Asia they are really helping Americans get jobs.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:56 | 5947040 gmak
gmak's picture

snicker, right?  We are what WE produce, not what THEY produce.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:57 | 5947284 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"If US households and firms invest abroad, the resulting outflows of financial capital would be expected to weaken the dollar, which in turn would promote US exports."

Reminds me of my confusion before I learned about the Austrian School of economics.

I knew it all: Monetarism, communism, socialism, Keynesianism, and versions thereof. So I'd read a complicit media article saying stuff like above and think, "I understand." Later I would read another complicit-media article conveying the opposite, and how good that would be, and I'd think, "I understand."

After a while, I became confused, and adrift on this sea of lies. Trying to understand Asia and Russia in 1997 and 1998 was especially confusing.

Then while trying to understand where the capital flowing overseas was coming from if capital and jobs were being destroyed here, I discovered Rothbard, Hayek, and Mises. My confusion lifted like a San Francisco fog.

I floated to the top of the sea of lies like a cork and swam to truth's shore.

I have now climbed this shore's Everest for a better view of the sea of lies, and to provide an early warning to it storms and tsunamis.

The banksters need to repay us.

 

"Come on out. The truth is great."

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:56 | 5947039 Mentaliusanything
Mentaliusanything's picture

One day they will jail these fools. Pulling levers madly without knowing how they connect will blow the machine up one day. Then you will hear him say "I never factored that "

 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 19:57 | 5947041 gmak
gmak's picture

OR , "No one could have forseen this". 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:21 | 5947091 Berspankme
Berspankme's picture

prefer to see this fucker dead

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:00 | 5947169 toomuchtom
toomuchtom's picture

The machine blew-up 7 years ago and we didn't jail them. Those fools will all be ensconsed in an eternal Bilderberg Conference by the time the serfs realize what has happened. Very sad.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:33 | 5947235 Taffy Lewis
Taffy Lewis's picture

I was thinking Vlad the Impaler, and Bernanke would have the highest pole to sit on.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:35 | 5947239 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

"One day they will jail these fools."

Guillotining is quicker and cheaper. And can be subsidized with T-Shirt, beer and popcorn sales.

The banksters need to repay us.

 

Now if these "jails" are zoos where I can bring my kids to throw "poo" at them, I'd might go along.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:00 | 5947046 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

It's all about the Usury !!!!!

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:06 | 5947061 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Primus Chairsatanus Maximus Benus Bernankenarium i.e., pussy-lipped M'Fer.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:11 | 5947071 JLM
JLM's picture

Didn't see "Russia" on that debt list.  Does that mean they have no debt??  No wonder the Americans hate them.  Their jealous!  

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:25 | 5947101 suteibu
suteibu's picture

We hate them for their monetary freedoms.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:16 | 5947078 Cautiously Pess...
Cautiously Pessimistic's picture

Does he write articles under the name Ben Bernanke and then go upvote himself using Edward Quince?

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:16 | 5947079 suteibu
suteibu's picture

Man, this dickhead should have had the common sense to disappear after he left the Fed.  He just can't stop pinning targets on his back.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:20 | 5947080 Thirst Mutilator
Thirst Mutilator's picture

Luciferian

 

~~~WIKI~~~

Ben Shalom* Bernanke ~ * LUCIFERIAN, not jewish

 

Family and early life

Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, and was raised on East Jefferson Street in Dillon, South Carolina.[4] His father Philip was a pharmacist and part-time theater manager. His mother Edna was an elementary school teacher.[5] Bernanke has two younger siblings. His brother, Seth, is a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sister, Sharon, is a longtime administrator at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The Bernankes were one of the few [not] Jewish ~ LUCIFERIAN families in Dillon and attended Ohav Shalom, a local synagogue;[6] Bernanke learned Hebrew as a child from his maternal grandfather Harold Friedman, a professional hazzan (service leader), shochet, and Hebrew teacher.[7][8] Bernanke's father and uncle owned and managed a drugstore they purchased from Bernanke's paternal grandfather, Jonas Bernanke.[4]

Jonas Bernanke was born in Boryslav, Austria-Hungary (today part of Ukraine), on January 23, 1891. He immigrated to the United States from Przemy?l, Austria-Hungary (today part of Poland) and arrived at Ellis Island, aged 30, on June 30, 1921, with his wife Pauline, aged 25. On the ship's manifest, Jonas's occupation is listed as "clerk" and Pauline's as "doctor med".[9][10]

The family moved to Dillon from New York in the 1940s.[11] Bernanke's mother gave up her job as a school teacher when her son was born and worked at the family drug store. Ben Bernanke also worked there sometimes.[6]

Young adult

As a teenager, Bernanke worked construction on a new hospital and waited tables at a restaurant at nearby South of the Border, a roadside attraction in his hometown of Dillon, before leaving for college.[4][12] To support himself throughout college, he worked during the summers at South of the Border.[4][13]

Religion

As a teenager in the 1960s in the small town of Dillon, Bernanke used to help roll the Torah scrolls in his local synagogue. Although he keeps his [LUCIFERIAN ~ NOT JEWISH] beliefs private, his friend Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University's economics department, says they are "embedded in who he (Bernanke) is".[14] On the other hand, the Bernanke family was concerned that Ben would "lose his [LUCIFERIAN] NOT~  Jewish identity" if he went to Harvard. Fellow Dillon native Kenneth Manning, who would eventually become a professor of the history of sciences at MIT, assured the family "there are [LUCIFERIANS] NOT Jews in Boston". Once Bernanke was at Harvard for his freshman year, Manning took him to Brookline for Rosh Hashanah services.[15]

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:21 | 5947090 suteibu
suteibu's picture

South of the Border.  Heh.  I wonder how many times he got his ass kicked by those college/high school kids headed for Myrtle Beach.  Sadly, it was at least one too few.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:23 | 5947095 Thirst Mutilator
Thirst Mutilator's picture

Luciferian Pedro

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 22:48 | 5947393 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

I watched the movie.

'Napoleon Dynamite'.

I didn't vote for Pedro.

In Spanish, Pedro means Peter (in English).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJFWoAVJz4

L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology has MANY, MORE attractive people in it.

SAY: Would you like to buy a flower to support the Church of Universal Consciousness? Our Reverend Moon is desperately in need of cash to pay debt obligations...

Don't fret about the status of your tuckus, Benjyamin Shalom Bernanke. AIPAC will take care of ALL your 'secular needs' from now on...


Sincerely,

The owner and chief Financial Officer, and lord of all that you see,

The Bringer Of Light (incorporated in all the corporeal regions of dry land on the Earth; except Iran, perhaps. We are working on this one.)

(Call me 'SATAN' for short, when making your monthly payments. A 'cash-back' incentive applies {some restrictions may apply. See your Luciferian Church Bank Branch for details. Offer ends soon.})


 

 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:06 | 5947415 VegasBob
VegasBob's picture

My part-jewish forebears would have just called Bernanke a thiefkike...

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:21 | 5947081 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

No one talks about the elephant in the room - America's unfunded liabilities of over $150 trillion and rising at $8 trillion a year.  Along with the debt of $18.17 trillion that comes to over $1,378,000 per taxpayer and rising at over $70,000 per year per taxpayer.

The US is far more broke that Greece.  So yes, Virginia, NIRP will come to the land of the free and become a permanent feature of the economic landscape.  

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 22:33 | 5947361 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

Just put it on my tab. I'm good for it... honest.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:18 | 5947082 Berspankme
Berspankme's picture

I despise this fucker and the fucking damage he has done. Die you fucking cunt Bernanke, just die

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:18 | 5947084 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Whenever you see the phrase "monetary tool"...Run Like Hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySO-gryuO-c

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:22 | 5947093 suteibu
suteibu's picture

I thought Bernanke was THE monetary tool.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:26 | 5947104 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Monetary Fool is more like it...lol.

Mentions debt one time and goes on to regale us with leveling the Rocky Mountains, leaving of course, nothing but rubble and debt ;-)

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:23 | 5947216 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

Altert: Snordster invokes V then calls us the pussies that we are. Sadly, I have to agree.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:53 | 5947279 nmewn
nmewn's picture

As much as they promote it, I'm of the opinion they can't handle pure madness ;-)

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 22:16 | 5947329 Paveway IV
Paveway IV's picture

The one thing preventing most of us from going full retard into pure madness is that it's suppose to be scary different and unimaginably dangerous from our otherwise normal, safe status-quo.

When the status quo devolves to becomes nearly undistinguishable from pure madness, then going full retard really isn't that big of a deal.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:48 | 5947508 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

S. U.

S. U.  O. M.

I'm working Cape Race.

Tell Captain Lord that his legacy will not be untarnished until after his demise. By then, it will be too late, though.

Would you care to quantify the 'most of us going full retard into pure madness' statement, Paveway?

SUPPOSED to be scary. NOT 'SUPPOSE'.

The Olympic (oops, I mean, 'Titanic') sinking caused 1,507 people to die suddenly in 3 to four minutes (some, slightly longer) by drowning or freezing to death in the Northern Atlantic seawater. Is THIS HISTORICAL FACT the event that you are comparing things to? Guns, and tanks, and fire trucks, and blitzes, and roundups, and mass murders by governments, and nuclear conflagurations, and immolation, and being drawn and quartered, and OTHER historical FACTS like THAT?

FUCK YOU and your 'so-called' 'conspiracy theory' MISDIRECTION.

SERIOUSLY!

 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:28 | 5947465 MontgomeryScott
MontgomeryScott's picture

The Constitution-class Starship 'Constellation' was attacked by essentially a 'robot'. It is an automated weapon of immense size and power. It's apparent function is to smash companies and industries to rubble, and then digest the components to sustain itself (much like a parasitic organism does). It is therefore self-sustaining, as long as there are debtor nations for it to feed on.

For further eludication, see Star trek TOS, season 2, episode 6 (I think), 'The Doomsday Machine':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRG97Iopd6Y

 

@nmewn,

Aye, laddie. Ye' ken a little of the morass.

The Klingons have come out bragging about targeting Yellowstone Park and the San Andreas faultline, you know. It's crazy for them to do this, because they would eradicate all life on the planet, perhaps. They canna' change the laws of physics, ye' know. All the DUMB's in the WORLD couldna' save them.

Lt. Cmndr. Scott, Chief Engineer (ret.)

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:25 | 5947102 Caviar Emptor
Caviar Emptor's picture

He's fast talkin slow walkin good lookin Ben Bernank

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:40 | 5947128 scaleindependent
scaleindependent's picture

"You're killing me Larry!"

-Bend Bernankles

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 20:51 | 5947149 Wilcox1
Wilcox1's picture

The Bellweather is that participation rate. Do any of Ya'll really think all these people are sitting on their ass? Participation is going on all right. Anything from standing on the corner with the will work sign, getting cans out of ditches, or taking anything that pays the day. When macro policy mandates peak debt and hand to mouth living for individuals as well as businesses then normal human beings are going to be forced out. Thats not the way we live. And kyle bass is wrong too--Everybody that is worth employing is not working. Bad for him because if they were his (and many others) investments would be doing much better.  Excessive debt kills flexibility. It kills adaptability. Topside policy should encourage an appropriate debt level, not an up to the eyeballs level.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:02 | 5947177 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Girl you thought he was a man
But he was a muffin
He hung around till you found
That he didn't know nuthin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CGO9I8rmkE

lol...fuck it, I don't care, I love the songs relevance ;-)

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:17 | 5947203 The Shape
The Shape's picture

Why are people continually afforded reverence because they held a position?

Fuck this guy. He should be pied in the face at his next speech.

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 21:31 | 5947230 SpeakerFTD
SpeakerFTD's picture

Ben  Bernanke is the Brian Hunter of reserve banking.   Take on a position,  access more capital, use that capital to add to your position, rinse and repeat.   You look like a hero during the build up, as each additional dollar of capital makes your initial investment look smarter.   Eventually, though,  you are the market, and when you are eventually forced to sell,  there is no bid.   The Fed will do to America, what Hunter did to Amaranth. 

Tue, 03/31/2015 - 23:29 | 5947467 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

the reason no one wants to hear bernanke speak is because the public nonsense spouted by greenspan is no longer accepted as passable in front of even somewhat self-educated audiences.

 

people know what's up. they dont' need bernanke to piss on their legs while he's telling everyone it's raining. 

 

of course, he coudl always probably get a lecture position at a bank sponsored mba program in some fancy mba school. 

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 00:21 | 5947564 The Duke of New...
The Duke of New York A No.1's picture

FROM BERNANKE'S LATEST BLOG POST:

 

Dear Readers .... Ben here .... when I'm out on the town having a good time with my pals from the FED & Treasury on a Friday night guess what we like to do for fun ....... I'll tell ya; instead of Midget Tossing at the local Pub, me and Timmy "Turbo" Geithner like to spend our Bro-Time tossing Seniors under the Buses!.

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 00:39 | 5947593 squid
squid's picture

Gosh I'm getting tired of looking at that Dept-to-GDP-Ratio chart.....

You CANNOT lump all the countries together like that.

Every country using different accounting, for example:

1. Canada/UK/Australia/NZ/UK... provide shit health care as part of government expenses, its in the balance sheet and an the books, the USA 'promises' to provide medicare and that number is NOT in the balance sheet,

2. Singapore has ZERO government debt yet this chart shows its at 382%???

 

It gives me a headache.

 

Squid

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 01:35 | 5947632 Ulterior
Ulterior's picture

At least there is a correlation beatween debt-to-gdp and better standard of living. My country was forced to take more debt by banksters after 2008 and nothing has been done to improve anything. Well, when an a country is a jackass micro state, one cannot consider a different outcome

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 02:10 | 5947661 malek
malek's picture

Very surprising.

My guess was zero, just like how often K-rug usually uses the D-word.

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 06:34 | 5947808 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

scripted. all of it. you just don't have decades and decades of stupidity or ignorance. this is all evidence of corruption theory playing out.

SOP

expand expand expand - CONTRACT

Central Banking script played over and over and over

P < P + I

Wed, 04/01/2015 - 10:23 | 5948454 BeaverCream
BeaverCream's picture

Modern Economist = someone who is good at making word salad hence obfuscating extremely simple ideas.  Elites need good "modern economists" on the payroll to make it seem like economics is some esoteric concept that is simply out of the grasp of anyone with an IQ below Bernank.  Money too hard for simpleton me watch football.

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