GOP hystrionics over Bernanke - you'd think HE WAS THE ONE WHO CAUSED THE DEREGULATION DISASTER.

[JohnWxy]

Republicans have been engaging in a lot of political theater at Bernanke's expense. All Bernanke did was to play a significant part in saving the country from a REPUBLICAN CAUSED GREAT DEPRESSION II. THE FED HAD NO REGULATORY POWERS OVER THE MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE CREDIT CATASTROPHE - THE WALL STREET INVESTMENT BANKS - UNTIL THEY WERE ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE. The Wall Street banks were the major players in the buying and selling of Credit Defualt Swaps - which thanks to REPUBLICANS WERE LEGAL AND UNREGULATED ( Who Wrecked the Economy? ...Foreclosure Phil ). The Republicans have been preaching against any and all regualtion for years.

It was Alan Greenspan who presided over years of overly expansionist monetary policy which created the housing bubble. It was the Bush administration who fought 50 states Attorneys General's efforts to reign in predatory lenders Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime - How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers.


The Republicans are all in high dudgeon with BERNANKE! WHAT??? IT WASN'T BERNANKE WHO CAUSED THE FUCKING DEREGULATION DISASTER..IT WAS THEM!! Now they are acting all incensed and offended, as if Bernanke had caused what would have been the Second Great Depression. If it wasn't for Bernanke (and others since the bail-outs began during Bush's reign - as they HAD to since that's when the Wall Street banks were about to collapse because all there bets were fucking worthless!) the whole banking system would have collapsed! But it wasn't until the bailouts became necessary that the Wall Street banks came to be regulated by the FED!).

These Republicans, what degenerate hypocrits, what fucking frauds. They're not fucking good enough to criicize the guy who helped to keep the disaster THEY CAUSED from turning into the Great Depression II.




http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6lpk7zDPbMCEHpcADrN9ruS9ceAD9CL7T0G0

— A Senate panel on Thursday approved the nomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to run the nation's central bank for another four years.

The Senate Banking Committee voted 16-7 to send Bernanke's nomination to the full Senate for consideration. Approval came after a two-hour debate that heaped both praise and criticism on the Fed chief.

~~
~~

Despite lawmaker anger over the bailouts and worries about stubbornly high unemployment, even some of Bernanke's critics acknowledge that his out-of-the-box thinking helped prevent the Great Recession from turning into the second Great Depression.

(more)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ixion]

1. his "out-of-the-box" thinking?

:wtf:

All he did is rob the treasury blind of money that we don't even have, and throw it at the bankers.

That is out-of-the-box thinking?

...

:rofl:

:eyes:

[wtbymark]

2. a few comments

A) it ain't over yet
B) If you don't think he was a part of the cause of this mess, you are mistaken
C) isn't he still under investigation for fraud in the BoA case?
etc.etc.

he's an Ayn Rand/ Greenspan desciple

[girl gone mad]

3. Bernanke did help cause the disaster.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/176558-why-bernanke-should-be-fired">Seeking Alpha:

Frankly speaking, reappointing Bernanke would be a reward for many failures, both as an economic theorist, and as Fed Chairman.

Back in 2003, Mr. Bernanke was a member of Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The housing bubble was already blooming, but, at that time, there was still an opportunity to keep it under control. Primarily, the nascent bubble was the result of ultra-low interest rates, championed by Mr. Bernanke, and agreed to by Greenspan. Transcripts of the Fed Meetings at that time indicate that Bernanke was a driving force behind the huge increase in so-called "liquidity" and abnormally low interest rates. He continued to support keeping rates abnormally low when his then-boss, Alan Greenspan, began to slowly raise them, in 2003. Indeed, until 2004, he not only wanted to keep rates abnormally low, but, more disturbing, he wanted to reduce rates below 1%. Had Bernanke gotten his way, the housing bubble would have been even bigger than it was, and the resulting collapse we are now experiencing would have been even deeper.

But, the mistakes didn’t end there. During his confirmation hearings in 2005, Bernanke stated:

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.

As we all now know, derivatives were a key factor that caused the current Financial Crisis. Many others were warning about the dangers inherent in uncovered derivative obligations. Yet, Benjamin Bernanke, supposedly a knowledgeable economist, was entirely oblivious to the danger. But, that's not all. There’s much more.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/176558-why-bernanke-should-be-fired">continued...

From Nomi Prins http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-02/ten-reasons-bernanke-should-hit-the-road/">10 Reasons Bernanke Should Be Fired:

1) His view of what constitutes “transparency” is dubious. About 300 members of Congress have thrown their support behind Ron Paul’s HR1207 Audit the Fed bill, which would further inspect the Fed’s clandestine love affair with the big banks. But Bernanke has told Congress that providing too much detail about what the Fed did for the banks would be “counterproductive.” Thus, the man who wrote in a pre-emptive Washington Post op-ed that “In its making of monetary policy, the Fed is highly transparent” doesn’t feel the same way about its Wall Street Welfare strategy.

2) He’s managed to raise more anti-Fed sentiment than any other Fed leader. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put a hold on Bernanke’s confirmation Wednesday, meaning it would take 60 senators to override Sanders to confirm Bernanke, instead of a simple majority. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd (D-CT), has called for stripping the Federal Reserve of its supervisory powers. “StopBailoutBen” petitions litter the Internet. Many other Washingtonians have called for a reduction in the Fed’s powers, even as others, notably President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, want to pile it on thicker.

3) Bernanke didn’t have a clue or a prevention strategy during the buildup to the second biggest financial crisis in U.S. history. Despite being a noted scholar of the first Great Depression, he missed the rapid increase in foreclosures during 2006 and 2007, the $14 trillion subprime-related toxic asset bubble, $2 trillion buildup of collateralized debt obligations, extreme leverage buildup that laced past mega-profits, labyrinth of off-book bank games, and every credit derivatives issue.

4) He abetted the notion of too big to fail. Bernanke instigated a slew of new bank mergers that have rendered the biggest banks bigger and more complex, and harder to regulate than ever before. In 2004, the five largest U.S. banks held 34 percent of all commercial bank assets; today they hold 48 percent.

5) He invited investment banks to come under the federal subsidy tent. Moniker changes approved by the Fed on Bernanke’s watch mean that former investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley became bank holding companies, with access to federal perks, despite taking investment banking-type risk.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-02/ten-reasons-bernanke-should-hit-the-road/">continued

Or, take your pick:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/whalen-person-of-the-year-bernanke-failed-miserably">Chris Whalen: Ben Bernanke Failed Miserably
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/08/while-much-or-most-of-wall-street-seems-to-believe-that-ben-s-bernanke-deserves-a-second-term-as-federal-reserve-chairman-2.html">Money&Company: How Bernanke Failed Us
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2009/08/while-much-or-most-of-wall-street-seems-to-believe-that-ben-s-bernanke-deserves-a-second-term-as-federal-reserve-chairman-2.html">Naked Capitalism: Tell Your Senator No On Bernanke
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/12/three-strikes-on-ben-bernanke-aig-goldman-sachs-bactarp/">The Big Picture: Three Strikes on Ben Bernanke: AIG, Goldman Sachs & BAC/TARP

Let me know if you want some more..