Bernanke says Fed has scope to provide more stimulus

[No Elephants]

What in God's name has Hanky Panky Bernanke been waiting for? A Romney Presidency?

Bernanke says Fed has scope to provide more stimulus



WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve has room to deliver additional monetary stimulus to boost the U.S. economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Congressional oversight panel in a letter.

"There is scope for further action by the Federal Reserve to ease financial conditions and strengthen the recovery," Bernanke wrote to the committee's chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, in a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday.

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Asked if it was too soon to consider new monetary easing steps when the Fed's Operation Twist program aimed at lowering long-term bond yields was still in effect, Bernanke said policymakers must invariably look beyond the immediate term.

"Because monetary policy actions operate with a lag, the stance of policy must necessarily be set in light of a forecast of future performance of the economy," Bernanke said.

Fed officials sharply revised down their forecasts for U.S. economic growth in June, and another potential round of downward revisions could come at its September meeting.

U.S. gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the second quarter, a level seen too weak to lead to a sustained decline in unemployment, which rose to 8.3 percent in July.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/us-usa-fed-bernanke-letter-idUSBRE87N0SJ20120825

If I live to be 1000, I will never understand a Democratic President, especially one who was elected on "change,' after the economic collapse of 2008, appointing a Republican and former head of the NY Fed as Secretary of Treasury or reappointing Bush's Bernanke.

And there are quite a few other Republican appointments, like Gates and the guy who wants to do away with the Post Office and was chief architect of the 2006 postal restructuring bill.

But, hey, who cares who a Democratic President puts in charge of things like war, money and thousands of federal jobs?

After all, the upside is that we get Justices like corporatist Breyer and Monsanto Kagan, both of whom voted with the Republicans on whether feds can force the states to expand Medicaid to cover people who are not already covered by Medicaid, but cannot afford either to comply with the mandate or to pay the "tax" for non-compliance. (If you cross your fingers really tightly, you might even get Justice Cass Sunstein next time!)

But, Democrats rejoiced because the same opinion upheld the Constitutionality of the individual mandate, the Republican Heritage Foundations response to Nixon's proposed employer mandate, which allows government to force individuals to buy things from private vendors or pay extra taxes if they don't buy--and not just health insurance, either, but ANYthing.

"I'll retire to Bedlam."