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A "Heroic" Ben Bernanke Blames Congress For Poor Economic Recovery

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Make no mistake, Ben Bernanke is a “courageous” guy. 

When the world was on the verge of collapse in 2008 thanks in no small part to the post dot-com bubble policies of his predecessor, the former Fed chair wants you to know that he did what was needed to save the world and he will tell you all about it in his new memoir “The Courage To Act”, which can be yours on Kindle for the weird price point of just $16.05 (or, in unconventional monetary policy terms, about a QE millisecond).

Of course perhaps more than any other post-crisis DM central banker, Bernanke has a lot of explaining to do. That is, it isn't immediately clear why, if Ben wants to contend that the Keynesian dominoe effect he set off in 2008 is such a success, that inflation expectations are still mired in the deflationary doldrums in Japan and Europe and why global demand and trade are stuck at stall speed.

Of course what you do if you're a Keynesian central planner in today's low-growth world is blame lawmakers because after all, when monetary policy fails to bring about the promised defibrillator shock to global demand, you can always pin the whole debacle on an ineffective legislature. Here's FT with Bernanke's take:

The former chairman of the Federal Reserve has hit out at Congress for failing to do its part to bolster America’s rebound from the financial crisis, saying the US central bank had been unfairly criticised when the recovery “failed to lift all boats”.

 

In his newly published memoir, Ben Bernanke admitted the Fed had failed to spot some of the dangers building before the financial crash, and said that the controversial rescues of Bear Stearns and the insurance company AIG had damaged its political standing and “created new risks to its independence”.

 

As suggested by the title of his book, The Courage to Act, Mr Bernanke argues that the Fed’s policies under his leadership were justified and helped usher in a stronger recovery than in many other countries. He draws a sharp contrast with the euro area, where monetary and fiscal policies had been “much tighter than demanded by economic conditions,” helping explain the miserable recovery in that economic bloc.

 


 

Mr Bernanke levels frequent criticism at Congress in the book, calling for less confrontation and implicitly contrasting the bitter partisanship on Capitol Hill with a collegiate, consensus-building approach within the Fed.

 

The publication come as Congress struggles to reach agreement on budget plans that would ensure highway building is funded and avoid a punishing fiscal clampdown after temporary spending measures lapse in December.

 

Mr Bernanke writes: “The Fed can support overall job growth during an economic recovery, but it has no power to address the quality of education, the pace of technological innovation, and other factors that determine if the jobs being created are good jobs with high wages.

 

“That’s why I often said that monetary policy was not a panacea — we needed Congress to do its part. After the crisis calmed, that help was not forthcoming. When the recovery predictably failed to lift all boats, the Fed often, I believe unfairly, took the criticism.”

Fortunately for Bernanke's successors at the Fed, there are now plenty of loud calls for monetary policy and fiscal policy to be merged which means that no longer will "heroes" like Ben have to worry about recalcitrant lawmakers, they'll simply be able to order the issuance of bonds which they themselves will purchase, and as absurd as you might think that sounds, it's where things are headed because as we outlined last month, it now looks like "they" are actually going to go "there" with the helicopter money drops. It's just too bad Ben isn't around to preside over the insanity.

 

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Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:08 | 6637851 City_Of_Champyinz
City_Of_Champyinz's picture

What about Dodd-Frank and all the other bullshit that was supposed to fix everything? 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:15 | 6637867 RopeADope
RopeADope's picture

Right Bernanke....It is not like you deployed monetary policy when you should not have, thus removing the impetus for Congress to maintain a healthy fiscal policy.

Say Ben, when you sell heroin on the street and the user overdoses do you blame the parents for letting them buy drugs from you?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:17 | 6637895 Richard Chesler
Richard Chesler's picture

Gassing all these thieving bastards was a much cheaper cheaper option.

Perhaps Adolf Hitler was on to something...

 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:21 | 6637908 knukles
knukles's picture

So then the pot is calling another pot black.  Well, maybe he has a grain of truth in there*, because Congress could outlaw the Fed and revert to real money and..... 
Well, good luck with that, so....
Nevermind

*No Ben this does not absolve you of a Goddamned thing.  Dispensation of One's Own Indulgences is perhaps the Greatest Sin of All

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:30 | 6637937 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

 

 

 

The lady [Ben] doth protest too much!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:56 | 6638063 t0mmyBerg
t0mmyBerg's picture

Yeah fuck you Ben.  And perhaps it had something to do with the fucking muslim communist sitting on Pennsylvania avenue you lapdog bitch

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:25 | 6638167 Ham-bone
Ham-bone's picture

Ben's such a douchebag - and here's why the Fed made what was always going to be hard into a catastrophe...

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3522366-demographics-the-real-opponent-the-fed-has-been-fighting-for-decades

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:37 | 6638464 ejmoosa
ejmoosa's picture

He is a douchebag.  I watched every bit of his testimony before Congress.  He was asked about government policies and he was too much of  a coward to take a position and answer at all.

 

 

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 05:19 | 6638714 Silky Johnson
Silky Johnson's picture

Green shoots motherfucker!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:41 | 6638469 All Risk No Reward
All Risk No Reward's picture

Just like the Federal Reserve Act, there are no penalties for breaking Dodd-Frank.

Since there are no penalties, they can't accurately be called laws.

The are propaganda documents and little else.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:34 | 6637954 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

 

 

Knucks, no need to outlaw the Fed. Just remove the monopoly.

Allow the states, (Texas anyone?), to enter the banking business.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:37 | 6637981 johngaltfla
johngaltfla's picture

Man, some dicks never change. Flaccid, weak, impotent and blaming everyone else for performance issues.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:05 | 6638079 57-71
57-71's picture

It is the right of academics to blame everyone else for their own shortcomings.

This is taught to them early on in university.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:32 | 6638864 BigWillyStyle87
BigWillyStyle87's picture

LOL yeah thats what will make it all better, let governments handle this problem. 

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:32 | 6638865 BigWillyStyle87
BigWillyStyle87's picture

LOL yeah thats what will make it all better, let governments handle this problem. 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:23 | 6637922 Everyman
Everyman's picture

Nope, no gassing or head loped off.  Beat these bastards to death with a carpenter hammer and ball peen hammer.  Break every fucking bone in their body.  Then pour salt on them and let them bleed out.

For the damages these fucks have foisted upon us, our country, and the NEXT GENERATION, they deserve to die painfully and publicly to make a clear example of them.

 

And this psycho sociopath Bernanke has the "audacity" to call his Book "Courage to Act".  What a self involved motherfucker!!!  Can't stand the fact that this is OUR FUCKING money and it is easy to be brilliant and courageous with a COUPLE TRILLION DOLLARS OF SOMEBODY ELSE'S MONEY!!!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:37 | 6637978 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

Can't stand the fact that this is OUR FUCKING money and it is easy to be brilliant and courageous with a COUPLE TRILLION DOLLARS OF SOMEBODY ELSE'S MONEY!!!

It never was our money.  It has always been the bankers currency.  Our only defense has been to convert their currency into hard assets as quickly as we earn it.  Of course they know this, so they will periodically engineer busts after their booms so we can never be safe.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:47 | 6638026 Everyman
Everyman's picture

+10 for your response.  However, they still should be beat with hammers.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:51 | 6638046 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

 

 

They probably should not. 

"Beat" them with the Constitution instead?

 

(ps....liked your gig in Primal Fear!)

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:31 | 6638190 Everyman
Everyman's picture

We still have a constitution, TRUE.

However, those in power, and the elites ignore it.  It will take a not so civil war to overthrow this power ase.  They own the ballot boxes, the media, and the politicians.  We have a one party system.  It will not go queitly, and it WILL take force.

The terrorists are in DC and Wall Street and Board Rooms in the Cleptocracy of the United States.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:47 | 6638374 Osmium
Osmium's picture

I think my hammer of choice would be a checkered face framing hammer.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:07 | 6638405 Everyman
Everyman's picture

I was thinking of maybe using a tack or upolstry hammer.  Death by a thousand hammer hits!

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 04:17 | 6638696 The Pope
The Pope's picture

I'd still go with the 16 lb sledge hammer. Because, well, FUCK 'em that's why.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 06:44 | 6638790 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Your Holinest,

just the handle makes repetitive blows less tiring, and removes the probability of having placed your weapon too deep to be removed quickly.

 

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 06:57 | 6638804 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

repost :ny jews all corrupt or just my anti semitism?  here's one of bernanke's buds..

"The New York Times is declaring that disgraced private equity mogul Steven Rattner has gotten his reputation back in the Manhattan lunch circles that matter. This was probably only a matter of time given that it was the Times itself that played a leading role in his rehabilitation.

It’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, naturally, who pronounces the cleansing complete, even wondering aloud if Rattner could be a Treasury secretary someday.

This about a guy who just two years ago paid $16 million to settle SEC and New York lawsuits against him for taking part in a kickback scheme with public officials to get $150 million in pension-fund business. His firm, Quadrangle, coughed up another $12 million and said what Rattner did was “inappropriate, wrong and unethical.” They might have added “corrupt.”

Recall that Rattner was Obama’s car czar responsible for bailing out and overseeing GM and Chrysler. Three months into the administration, it emerged that Rattner was under investigation by Andrew Cuomo, then the New York Attorney General, and by the SEC for paying kickbacks to get business from the giant New York pension fund. Rattner originally got immunity in the investigation until Cuomo caught him covering up his own involvement."

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:00 | 6638808 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

2 more wall street jews for control of the people - these ny jews never stop:

"Ackman likely won't be putting any actual money on this bet—Bloomberg sure doesn't need it—but he's certain the former New York City mayor and head of his eponymous company is going to run for U.S. president, and win.

"I would do everything in my power to get this guy elected," Ackman, the head of Pershing Square Capital, said at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit."

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 03:07 | 6638659 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

The terrorists are in DC

 

This is most true. Most of them currently at 38° 52? 15.56? N, 77° 3? 21.46? W

 

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/10/04/americas-sad-terror-confession/

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:50 | 6638040 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

 

 

There is another defense provided by the constitution per Article V.

What if the federal monopoly on banking were removed and the business of banking were returned to the states?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:23 | 6637925 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

 

 

Responsible fiscal policy intended to help the middle class emanating from a bi-partisan Congress???

What the fuck is he thinking?!?!  Yeah, and then a Leprechaun will ride his unicorn to Bigfoot's house

for a tea party with Elvis and Tupac.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:28 | 6637938 RopeADope
RopeADope's picture

Funny how Congress is not purged of its useless critters when the Fed is running around blowing sunshine up everyone's arse.

If the Fed is directly responsible for market failure in the politician market then one wonders where Bernanke gets the balls to come out and say what he did with a straight face.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:41 | 6638003 knukles
knukles's picture

Easy with that Leprechaun stuff.  I was sitting next to Elvis when he was flying the UFO and we had several unicorns and Leprechauns on board.
T'was a party me lad, quite the party!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:50 | 6638467 ThroxxOfVron
ThroxxOfVron's picture

I knew it !

You're the guy that had the threesome with the unicorn and the space turtle!

I still have pictures of that crazy shit the Feds didn't confiscate!!!

OMG.  When Elvis landed us at the car wash and commanded they wax the vehicle while the deflector shields were on!!!

I never ate so many pills.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:12 | 6638111 Lets Buy The Dip
Lets Buy The Dip's picture

most people do not even have the money to gas their car! Today I read somewhere where HALF of the people in the US actually have any savings in the bank. 

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/06/nearly-half-of-americans-have-no-savings-...  wow. 

This guy is rediculosuly accurate with his market calls, and said to watch the high yeild charts at the moment => http://www.bit.ly/1jLMmPk

But ben bernanke's comments make me think, he was the biggest criminal running the show when he was in office. I mean seriously, what he did, to this great country should go down in history as some of the worst, and its setting up for a market crash in a few years. Blow that bubble ben!!! haha. No wonder they call him helicopter ben, what a moron. 

If I were you I would not be listening to a moron, who is no more than a criminal in co-hoots, with the PTB. But who really knows what is going on down there at the FED. It sounds like a scam within a scam. haha. Now work that one out. 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:48 | 6638360 ChanceIs
ChanceIs's picture

I went to a rally for a candidate to replace Chris van Hollen in Maryland's 8th district.  i pulled him aside and asked him what the biggest issue was.  he said the environment.  I said the biggest issue was HSBC laundering bi$$ions in drug money and nobody going to jail.  He said tha HSBC has chartered in Maryland and from the Maryland state house he had written the state AG and asked for its charter to be revoked.  For a libtard the guy was not as dumb as he at first sounded.  i wished him luck and told him the best thing he could do for the country was to throw 10k bankers in jail should he get elected.  It is so liberal around me that the pubs don't even seem able to field a candidate.  Christmas has been taken off the public school calendars because the Muslims wanted their religious holidays listed as well.  The school board couldn't handle it so they took them all off.  i think the kids still get Christmas Day off, but they probably cll it Saturnalia or some such.

I might have to change parties so i can vote for this guy in the primaries.  the other choice is Chris Matthews' (of MSNbC) wife.  She was a TV news anchor.  She then bacame the LGBT coordinator for Marriott making sure that there were 20 different bathrooms in each hotel lobby, one for each possible sexual orientation.  She was kind enough to get Marriott ensnarled with Bill and Hillary on their massive plunder of post hurricane Haiti. 

Hillary was able to get brother a lease on a gold mine.  First one granted in about 100 years.  that way they can mine more so when the next hurricane comes around, the mudslides will be even bigger.  And then it feeds on itself.  Matthews got some land for Marriott cheap through Bill and Hillary.  I think they must own the island.  Good escape place for them if hillary gets indicted.  Bill would only have a short trip over to buddy Brian Epstein's private island.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:13 | 6637870 vmromk
vmromk's picture

Bernanke, you are a parasitic cocksucking motherfucker.
The gallows is the only place for you, you motherless piece of shit.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:18 | 6637900 HedgeAccordingly
Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:38 | 6637984 BandGap
BandGap's picture

See this for what it is.

The game is up, time to cover one's ass. Wonder if the other world economies will allow time for this in the US. It would be detrimental to let this happen and slow down the revolution.

Endgame is up next.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:11 | 6638035 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Banks, Corporations, and both Public and Private Executives are Whiners. They obfuscate, block, rally against, pay lobbyist to rewrite and change all that.

- Dodd-Frank seems to lack serious reforms and doesn't address monopolies, anti-trust, Gift Giving in Politics, Money as Speech, Election Reform, etc

- Basel Accords are a failure and dead as there are not enough Collateral Paper to make it work and QE buys up collateral paper while further reducing velocity http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-01/desperately-seeking-112-trillio...

- FDIC Funding is still massively underfunded for $8.2 in Total Deposits, something like $50 Billion total
- Pension Guarantee is also massively underfunded and ignored and was not addressed in Dodd-Frank, even though overspends by like $5 Billion each year

edit: I forgot the link.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:41 | 6638472 ThroxxOfVron
ThroxxOfVron's picture

Lumps in the carpet.

They rolled some cheap new shag over the old carpet and it's soft and smells new; but, the lumps are still under there..

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 00:30 | 6638526 SDShack
SDShack's picture

There are only two words needed to prove the Rule of Law is dead... killed by spreading rot that has affected everything in this country... those words are John Corzine. The fact that John Corzine is not in jail tells you everything you need to know about how fucked the world is and why the Bernack changd the Fed Motto to... "Free John Corzine". 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:38 | 6638466 ThirteenthFloor
ThirteenthFloor's picture

Section 2 of Dodd Frank is basically the bail in act. If your bank goes under you get shares of its stock, not your deposits. That is FDIC answer to insurance a bail in. OLA....look it up.

Only morons have a large bank account.

To bankers and government you and I are only a "tax paying unit".

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:09 | 6637855 ZippyDooDah
ZippyDooDah's picture

I'd like to help Mr. Ben---up the steps on the guillotine!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:10 | 6637859 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Hang him anyway . . . just to be sure.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:37 | 6637982 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

You mean we don't get to nuke him from orbit?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:41 | 6637998 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Check Target Background and Horizon.

Would seem to be the USA.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 23:48 | 6638476 ThroxxOfVron
ThroxxOfVron's picture

Hanging is old style.  A simple solution recalling a simpler time.

It's nostalgic.  Kinda classy, definitely personal and deliberate. 

Almost romantic...

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 00:00 | 6638494 847328_3527
847328_3527's picture

Very true, Throxx. Almost brings a tear to my eyes.

Furthermore, the noose is "one size fits all" so  there's no worry about choosing the right size. So pure, clean, innocent, you might say.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:13 | 6637877 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

A serial rapist who defines his acts of immoral infamy as "the courage to act".

Curious, to say the least.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 00:47 | 6638548 Temporalist
Temporalist's picture

"She was askin' for it!  They're all askin' for it!"  - The Bernank

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:17 | 6637891 Lorca's Novena
Lorca's Novena's picture

Ben just shut the F up and move to Tel Aviv already.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:08 | 6638091 yogibear
yogibear's picture

Shalom Bernanke

OR BS Bernanke.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:17 | 6637893 PGR88
PGR88's picture

Bernanke is simply a high-level Central-planning aparatchik of America's socialized, state-controlled monetary system.

Just like all central planners, he will fail miserably.  Why would he ultimately be any different than Soviet tractor-production planners, or North Korean agriculture officials?

All that's left after that is the politics.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:17 | 6637894 pelican
pelican's picture

Ben you along with the Fed, WS, and Congress destroyed the fiancial lives of so many American citizens.  I hope in one hundred years your name is lost to time.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:23 | 6637923 Fred Hayek
Fred Hayek's picture

I hope it's not.
I hope it's listed right after "quisling" as a synonym for "traitor".

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:39 | 6637986 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Ben Bernanke Above Janet Yellen, Henry Paulson, Lloyd Blankfien, Jamie Dimon, and Benedict Arnold under Treason, Traitor.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:19 | 6637903 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

He should try blamming his dad. Its the PC thing these days.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:20 | 6637910 DocBarter
DocBarter's picture

Ben Shalom Bernanke    jew squared     

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:22 | 6637913 Billy Shears
Billy Shears's picture

Who reads this tripe, anyway? I would imagine only the completely brain-washed and lobotomized denizens of Manhattan and D.C..

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:21 | 6637916 Nobodys Safe
Nobodys Safe's picture

Why would anyone criticize the Fed or Bernanke, it's not like they created the money out of thin air.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:23 | 6637924 Lorca's Novena
Lorca's Novena's picture

and made perpetual debt slaves of the middle class.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:43 | 6638010 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

And to that end Bernanke was very courageous.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:21 | 6637917 Fred Hayek
Fred Hayek's picture

Consensus building approach?!
They're all just stooges reading off the play book the staff gives them!
Go watch John Titus's video "They Came From Planet Klepto". It's pretty clear that the Fed governors are just irrelevant figureheads.

It's easy to build consensus when the decision was made before you and the others came into the room, Ben.

"Hey, let's do what it already says right here."

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:35 | 6637970 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Yeah, there are like 4 Videos. Pretty good, but the one on Ben Bernanke caught my Attention.

From above:

"Mr Bernanke writes: “The Fed can support overall job growth during ..."

- Should say during Globalization, Open Borders, Wage Suppression, Low Investment, Low Capex Investment... and the fact that TARP, QE, and LIRP/ZIRP were not for Main Street at all, at John Titus says it was all a Lie to protect bank bonuses and to enlarge and enrich the Banks (Job Enlargement)

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:27 | 6637934 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

No shit Sherlock!

Congress has the powers of Legislation even if they sell it off to Lobbyist for Self Promotion in acts of Treason, Racketeering, and Anti-Trust Activity.

Soft Landing:

- Reduce Velocity through QE purchases of Paper Collateral
- Extract household Wealth
- Expands household debt
- Suppress Wages & Compensation, through GLobalism
- Prevent Safe Interest Grown on Savings through LIRP/ZIRP/NIRP
- Shrinking Financial Bubble while providing for good stock prices and limited problems with inflation & deflation

Soft Landing Provides:

- Shrinking Financial Bubble
- Cheap Asset Purchases and company M&A for Elites
- Finances Stock Buybacks and Ensures Bonus Pay though performance
- Accellerates Wealth Gap and Global Take over "Quickening"
- Provides Environment of Decline required to take over more FIREs and Corporate Assets

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:27 | 6637935 abyssinian
abyssinian's picture

That is like blaming the dentist for not fixing my child's rotten teeth because I gave the kid too much candy.  

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:28 | 6637940 fowlerja
fowlerja's picture

I am so sad for Bendover Berankee .. he was retired from active duty before he was able to use his helicopter pilot wings ... but I understand Janet Yelling (into the wilderness) is investigating a pilot's license for a B52 bomber..much heavier payload and mileage coverage.. a decision has not yet been made to drop $20 or $100 bills..understand this will be covered at the next Fed meeting ...raising interest rates proved too hard...so they are looking at this venue..

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:30 | 6637942 Don Pancho
Don Pancho's picture

bankers, politicians, lawyers and insurance...

 

all equally...

 

i guess they can keep on blessing me and my family...i like it...thank you can i have another...

 

after all, the nation can and should go on like this forever right?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:33 | 6637950 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

Just like the little boy standing next to the empty cookie jar with cookie crumbs all down the front of his shirt saying "not me".

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:02 | 6638074 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

The Courage to Act should be a Book about US Congress Cronyism, Self Promotion, Corruption, Anti-trust, Racketeering, Treason, Money and Gifts in Politics... While congress pretend it is not their job to listen to Main Street at all.

The Courage to Act should be a Book about Taxation without Representation.

The Courage to Act should be About Monopoly Power in the USA and now the Globe, and how the US Congress gives them subsidies.

The Courage to Act should be about Globalism and the War on the Middle Class, Suppressing Small Businesses and Savings, and suppression through Usury Power, Monopoly Power of TBTJ Banks.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:38 | 6637971 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

   Someone needs to put Bernankes head on the " turnstile" next to the ticket booth, for entrance to the Statue of Liberty.

 How can this clown even begin to quantify the good he's done?  I literally can't stop laughing.

 China is insignificant to, American growth. This is/was the Federal Reserve mantra.

 A friendly piece of advice.

1} Make sure trading isn't a primary source of income.

2} I've been flat for weeks, other than my "short debt" trades. I'll probably never realize full payment, on those trades.

3} Don't even think about buying real estate.[ I just started shorting] mortgage backed securities.

4} I am the Devil, and I'm coming for anything you have of value.

 Sincerely, Mr. Yellen

 c.c. Jim Bullard

 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:00 | 6638069 OC Sure
OC Sure's picture

Violence would be too easy...and unfortunately thats what will come to pass.

But! There is an intellectual solution provided by our founding intellectuals.

Article V of the US Constitution bypasses the federation and allows the STATES to RULE!

 

What if a 2nd convention of states removed the monopoly of banking and returned the business to the competition of the states?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:07 | 6638085 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Well they had that Andrew Ross Sorkin write as they dictated the Meme on the 2008 Financial Crisis.

SO I guess Bernanke is sold on how propaganda works.

Book is not so much a tome as an Insurance on his reputation and the safety of his US Residency.

Did I get the right Sorkin?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:31 | 6638189 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 I think you're looking for Milton?

 Andrew Ross "Cream Puff" Sorkin. lol, Is he even still on the Blowhorn?

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 04:06 | 6638691 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Milton C. Jacobson - Jacobson & Sorkin - Personal Injury Attorneys?

Jul 2, 2013 ... Andrew Ross Sorkin picks the best books to read this summer. ... "Capitalism and Freedom" by Milton Friedman. Sorkin calls this "a seminal

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:44 | 6637976 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

Look in the mirror bitch, same goes for Timmah and all that renewable stimulus money. BTW, wasn't it you that convinced congress that the sky was falling and convinced them to vote for TARP, when you had all along planned for the CPFF (Commercial Paper Funding Facility)? and who really got the money Ben.. Was it Main Street or Foreign Banks?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPUKy-3OfY

 

Please let us know before you emit any more excuses. I hear they cause global warming.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:37 | 6637979 Who was that ma...
Who was that masked man's picture

Rule number one:  When in doubt, blame Congress.

Rules number 2 through 10:  See rule number one.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:47 | 6638027 RopeADope
RopeADope's picture

The Golden Rule of Sociopathy:

It is always someone else's fault.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:39 | 6637987 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

as he takes his multi million dollar payoffs from the maggots

This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, "I've done nothing wrong". [/Proverbs 30:20]

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:54 | 6638056 Yes_Questions
Yes_Questions's picture

Geez no wonder so many men are inclined to fuck anything if they see. 

 

Thanks Proverbs explains a lot!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:41 | 6637999 noless
noless's picture

oh ben, thanks i guess, but i would appreciate some loyalty in the future, like you mandated.

 

full employment though?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:43 | 6638004 Zero-Hegemon
Zero-Hegemon's picture

Haiku time:

 

Just a drug dealer,

Chastising a drug addict.

Poor old Bernanke!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:42 | 6638009 knukles
knukles's picture

What!??!?!?!?!  No shovel ready jobs?

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:52 | 6638030 Zero-Hegemon
Zero-Hegemon's picture

I found some:

Burying all of Obama's skeletons.

Digging up all of Hillary's dead bodies.

Covering tracks in Syria.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:46 | 6638025 Bay Area Guy
Bay Area Guy's picture

Congress and the President have certainly contributed mightily to the non-recovery, but Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen's policies at the Fed have caused even more harm.  In trying to control the economy so that there's never a recession, they've only succeeded in ensuring that, at best, this country is going to be in an eternal recession.  The only thing he's been right about since I've had the misfortune of listening to him, is that interest rates will not be normalized in his lifetime.  To do so would be like amputating the Federal budget.  At a minimum, the interest on the Federal debt would rise by more than $500 billion and the U.S. would be back to annual operating deficits of $1 trillion or more.  I recall Bernanke cahstising Congress about that early in Obama's administration.

Simply put, Mr. Bernanke, your policies, and the policies of your predecessor and your successor, have crippled this country.  Congress and the President have added gangrene to the diagnosis with their "budget" policies of eternal war.  The people that are suffering the most, though, are the people that you, Greenspan, Yellen, Obama and every member of Congress could give a flying fuck about, and that's the poor and middle class.  You, Mr. Bernanke, have condemned the people in those classes to a life of continuing REDUCTIONS in the quality of living, the first time in this country's history that this has happened.

Be proud of yourself, Mr. Bernanke.  But when the time comes, and it will come during your lifetime, you had better hope and pray that you have found a safe hiding place, because there will be a mass of people who will like nothing better to see  you and your collegues put in jail for the rest of your lives.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:47 | 6638028 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Note to Bernanky.

 You aint a pimp any more, shut up!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:55 | 6638057 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Bernake and Yellen should have the question raised that they lose citizenship.

They should lose the Microphone. Call it a Putsch.

And what is the author saying here?

"Fortunately for Bernanke's successors at the Fed, there are now plenty of loud calls for monetary policy and fiscal policy to be merged ..."

WTF

Doesn't he see the Exponential Spending since 2002 as FISCAL Policy that gathered speed under Obama? WTH could Monetary Policy add after 16 Years of Low interest Rates, TARP, and QE3.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:54 | 6638255 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

Au contraire, he is still a very big pimp.  He charges a quarter million bucks to hear him speak keynote!  He's still robbing people blind!!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:52 | 6638048 Grandad Grumps
Grandad Grumps's picture

I blame Ben because he is a liar and fraud whose soul was sold to the bankers and their master.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:51 | 6638247 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

PREACH!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:52 | 6638051 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

Why do people assume that corporation money held offshore.. the trillions they speak of.. is held in US dollars???

They can't be that dumb... besides.. they never made US dollars offshore.. therefore it prob isn't US dollars...

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:55 | 6638058 Crocodile
Crocodile's picture

Congress blames the FED and the FED blames Congress; both are right!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 20:57 | 6638064 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

ben just shut up...after telling us month after month year after year, the economy is in recovery, you now say it's not? and congress is to blame..too bad nothing of harm will come to this man. unless he happens upon me on some dark street.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:11 | 6638109 yogibear
yogibear's picture

BS Bernanke. His first and middle initial says it all.

 

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:48 | 6638239 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

Shalom means hello and goodbye!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:27 | 6638175 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

So apparently they admit to a Recession, but not a Depression and the years include: 2Q 2008 - 3Q 2009.

"As suggested by the title of his book, The Courage to Act, Mr Bernanke argues that the Fed’s policies under his leadership were justified and helped usher in a stronger recovery than in many other countries..."

And they don't admit that Higher Welfare Levels, Higher TANF, Higher WIC, higher Tax Credits for families with Children has anything to do with it. Just like how low Labor Participation Rates is not Stagnation. And Yellen's Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Rate going lower this quarter is not a sign of prolonged Recession or a Depression.

IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays 2014 = $60.09 Billion
IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays 2013 = $57.5 Billion (?What?)
IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays 2000 = $26 Billion
IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays 1998 = $23.2 Billion
--

IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays 2014 = $21,49 Billion
IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays 2013 = $21.6 Billion (?What?)
IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays 2000 = $806 Million (Million)
IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays 1998 = Zero.....
--

2014 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $102 Billion
2013 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $109 Billion
2008 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $60 Billion
2004 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $45 Billion
2000 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $32 Billion
1998 Federal Outlays for SNAP, Child Nutrition, & WIC = $33 Billion
--

Department of Health and Human Services (MEDICAID):
2014 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $301 Billion
2013 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $256 Billion
2008 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $201 Billion
2004 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $176 Billion
2000 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $118 Billion
1998 Outlays Federal Grants to States for Medicaid = $101 Billion

Oh, I see.

And Money Velocity decreases don't matter, and Increases would not help small businesses nor labor participation?

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MZMV
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M2V
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/M1V
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MULT

And Domestic Investment nor Capex Investment would help either?

This is Systemic Globalization and Treason.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:44 | 6638229 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

Bernanke is the ultimate piece of shit banker.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:45 | 6638234 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

soon to be listed on clearance for $1.05.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:48 | 6638237 silverer
silverer's picture

Raising interest rates to 6% when you first took your post at the Fed would have done it, you chicken shit.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 21:56 | 6638263 jmeyer
jmeyer's picture

Hello Ben, it's the FED that is going to get the blame when the ship sinks; there's no escape for the central banks. They grabbed the responsibility over a hundred years ago and now , after the dollar has lost all its value from 1913, Congress ain't taking the blame. Ironically it's probably not the Fed's fault since larger cycles are in play, but somebody has to be the scapegoat and the central banks are the perfect demon.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:08 | 6638285 ali-ali-al-qomfri
ali-ali-al-qomfri's picture

The Courage to Print

' ...we needed Congress to do its part.'

if Congress did it's part, The Fed would never have existed.

 


Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:20 | 6638319 Cycle
Cycle's picture

Ben had a thesis. He got  PhD with it. The short take: "There *is* such  thing as a free lunch." He applied it, it didn't work out.  Not his fault. Lysenko economics, it works if we say it works!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:42 | 6638362 wankawanka
wankawanka's picture

I blame Congress for not auditing the FED and shutting it down!!!

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:44 | 6638368 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

Congress fault was bailing out the irresponsible. They introduced financial socialism, that's why there can never be a recovery.

Tue, 10/06/2015 - 22:53 | 6638385 Jack of All Trades
Jack of All Trades's picture

Banker man grows fat;

Working man grows thin

 

 

Fuck you Bernank!

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 00:39 | 6638389 honestann
honestann's picture

Bernanke... why didn't you have the "courage" to cut off the big-shot banksters and federal-government from endless "free" debt-money to let justice prevail (bankruptcy), and encourage them to get their houses in order (no more deficits)?

Oh, because you are a LIAR, a THIEF, a PREDATOR.

Fortunately, more awake to this fact every day.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 02:17 | 6638579 Md4
Md4's picture

Still clueless.

What Bernanke still doesn't get, is that monetary policy NEVER had a chance to work. Never.

One doesn't go to the grocery store to get your oil changed. The problem has NOTHING to do with liquidity or easy money.

It has to do with middle class JOBS!

Trickle down was always a questionable objective--even in good times--because it presumes the receivers of liquidity will find it less risky to invest in capex and other modes of legitimate growth--INSTEAD of, financially engineering less risky ways to profit on NOT doing that (carry trades, for example have zero impact on new middle class job growth in new industries).

Money could be free FOREVER, and it would never make a goddamned bit of difference if someone isn't willing to use that resource for new R&D, new technology development, AND new manufacturing jobs fueling middle class incomes.

Even fiscal policy to reduce government and the need for endless deficits will do little to build whole new industries to re-employ middle class workers that have been severely damaged by 40+ frickin years of stinking western corporate outsourcing. We have seen time and again, government "incentives" misused for easy gain, while precious little new middle clas job creation takes place.

What investor (today's racketeer) is going to gamble on designing and building new things to sell, if he already KNOWS his customers are broke, deeply in debt from the last Fed misadventure in brainless monetary policy...and therefore, CAN'T consume?

Answer?

NONE.

And that's the problem. That has nothing to do with interest rate manipulation, or any other "stimulus" measure.

What makes this so expensively infuriating is these people's extreme stubbornness in not STOPPING their stupid policies WHEN they could CLEARLY see they weren't going to work, and have NOT worked as intended. They're guilty of gross incompetence, if not malfeasance AND lying about their hapless polices' effectiveness, if not outright fraud. There's NO way they could not have known this. Yellen knows this today--and STILL continues to be arrogant and obstinate--even though the problem worsens with an ever widening wealth gap THEIR insipid polices exacerbate--if not create.

Greenspan, Bernanke, and now Yellen, continue the lunacy to the point of causing so much damage, they themselves are caught within its grip.

"Courage to Act", Mr. Chairman?

Keep it up, and hopefully one day soon, you'll see the American people finally have the courage to act.

Lord knows...THAT'S long, long overdue.

m

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 01:46 | 6638599 Gracy101
Gracy101's picture

The government are in on it

cos when we pay our tax

we might as well hand it over 

straight to golman sachs

 

https://thatguybloke.wordpress.com

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 02:00 | 6638612 Peak Bull
Peak Bull's picture

"...the weird price point of just $16.05"

The elites love their numbers.
It probably has no meaning in this case though.

If it did have meaning, it would probably be:
"No rate increase before May 2016" :)

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 02:19 | 6638634 pndr4495
pndr4495's picture

The man who had the courage to act was Maj. General Smedley Darlington Butler

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 05:59 | 6638746 1stepcloser
1stepcloser's picture

Hang the fucker...that is all

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:12 | 6638830 JiminGA
JiminGA's picture

Liberals always place blame on others for their mistakes and shortcomings.  Helicopter Ben is no different.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:18 | 6638837 Batman11
Batman11's picture

As the elite pass the parcel of blame between each other to distract you, remember they are all working together and are all to blame.

 

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:38 | 6638874 Last of the Mid...
Last of the Middle Class's picture

2nd part of the game. Pissing down our backs for 7 years, now telling us it's rain.  Jeez what a scumbag.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:48 | 6638893 Raoul_Luke
Raoul_Luke's picture

Technically he is correct.  But they gave Congress (and the President) cover to do nothing for six years running.  If they had removed their interventions the economy would have imploded and then Obama and Congress might have been forced to actually do something to address the fact that government is getting in the way of the private sector expanding.  Bushbama's big governmentism would have been exposed for the bad policy that it is, and maybe they'd have had to remove some of the barriers to entry that have our net new business creation rate at record lows.  Heck of a job Bernankie...

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 07:56 | 6638913 graspAU
graspAU's picture

No love for the Bernanke here, but you are right. I watched about all of his testimony to congress, and he did overtly state that the fiscal side was the problem and he was doing what he could do. He blamed Congress in a nice tone many times. Congress holds the power to even reform the system, but they like the gravy train.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 08:13 | 6638942 Not if_ But When
Not if_ But When's picture

I hate to trot this out once again, but..................

TPTB, fueled by the Citizens United & McCutcheon Supreme Court rulings, have purposefully caused the partisanship/gridlock/stalemate/dysfunction in Congress to remove FISCAL POLICY from the governance equation.  They strategically back both Repub and Dem to make sure each seat offsets the other.  So nothing of import can be enacted. 

Once this state of legislative paralysis is ensured, the existence of congress and presidents means nothing.  Because the guidance and control of the economy has been turned over to the financial-industry-serving FED.  As has clearly been seen, the only substantial reaction to the financial crisis and its impact on the economy was the MONETARY POLICY actions of the FED.  The parties who caused the whole thing working in concert to continue to better themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Bernanke is being just as disingenuous about this as Hillary Clinton is with almost every utterance she makes since she is basically a sociopath.  And I'm afraid that so, so many people are going to just soak this up.  The same people who STILL believe that the FED came to the rescue.  Unfortunately this group reflects by far the majority of voters.

 

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 08:26 | 6638963 SharkBit
SharkBit's picture

I Piss on you book evil Ben.

Wed, 10/07/2015 - 09:20 | 6639176 Pumpkin
Pumpkin's picture

Congress can end the Fed anytime it likes, so actually, Ben the butt fucker is right.

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