Ben Bernanke

The vote was as shoo-in all the way. There was some noise but it did not amount to much. Bernanke has too many friends for a Senate slap down. One of them is Alan Blinder. Let's just say we don't agree.

Is it time to offer a human sacrifice to atone for the financial crisis? You don’t give an arsonist a medal for putting out the fire. How the smartest kid from rural Dillon, South Carolina saved the world. When do we find out how smart Bernanke really is? Nothing less than the fate of the free world depends on the answer.

Soon coming to a daylight drama TV show near you: Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson and Stephen Friedman, valiantly defending America from itself and the dumb peasants that inhabit it.

To us, the confirmation hearings last week before the Senate Banking Committee only reaffirm in our minds that Benjamin Shalom Bernanke does not deserve a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

On December 3rd, senators will have to decide: will they vote with their conscience, or with Wall Street's checkbook. Bernie Sanders has made his choice: "No, I absolutely will not vote for Mr. Bernanke. He is part of the problem. He's the smartest guy in the world, why didn't he do anything to prevent us from sinking into this disaster that Wall Street caused and which he was a part of? No, I will not vote for Bernanke to stay on as chairman."

The foreign exchange value of the dollar has moved over a wide range during the past year or so. When financial stresses were most pronounced, a flight to the deepest and most liquid capital markets resulted in a marked increase in the dollar. More recently, as financial market functioning has improved and global economic activity has stabilized, these safe haven flows have abated, and the dollar has accordingly retraced its gains. The Federal Reserve will continue to monitor these developments closely. We are attentive to the implications of changes in the value of the dollar and will continue to formulate policy to guard against risks to our dual mandate to foster both maximum employment and price stability. Our commitment to our dual objectives, together with the underlying strengths of the U.S. economy, will help ensure that the dollar is strong and a source of global financial stability.

No mention of Gold

"When you hear about the Federal Reserve Transparency Act getting stalled in committee, think of Daniel Webster, bought and paid for with central bank money. When you read Fed apologia in the New York Times, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal denouncing the "reckless populism" of the Act, think of the newspaper editors in Biddle's pocket."

Gets it right...

"When people kid around that the Fed has become another hedge fund now that it is the lender of first, second and last resort — to mention the market-maker for everyone including RVs and mobile homes — it really is no joke at all. See NY Fed in Hiring Spree as Assets Soar. The New York Fed is seeking to bolster its staffing of traders — not research staff, but traders — by nearly 70%!! When will the Fed start hiring investment bankers? That is what we would like to know."

It seems just yesterday that Ben Bernanke was rehearsing for the role of the Alzheimer's patient antagonist in Joel Schumacher's latest mad scientist-becomes-insane global dictator B-grade movie, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, after firing back with a catatonic "I don't recall" after catatonic "I don't recall" when asked to remember even one of the events in what historians will likely one day consider among the most critical 24 hours for modern capitalism. Many thought that this spectacle was merely a way for politicians to score populist points in a McCarthesque witch hunt sequel of the villain de jour play. It seems they were wrong.