You know how i feel about the reappointment of this GOP Bankster to head the Fed, so I’m delighted to report this.
This is some very big news from the Senate Banking Committee, which will be voting on Ben Bernanke's renomination tomorrow [today] at 9:30am ET:
WASHINGTON, DC - Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development, issued the following statement on his intention to vote against Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:
"Tomorrow, I will vote against confirming Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The reason, in short, is that as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke failed to recognize or remedy the factors that paved the road to this dark and difficult recession. Following our economic collapse, it is also apparent that he has not changed his overall approach to prioritizing Wall Street over American families.
"My decision is based on my fundamental belief that our economy cannot recover if we do not put Main Street first."
This is excellent news from Merkley - a genuinely courageous stand against the Washington establishment that is asking us with a straight face to thank the man who helped create the conditions for the recession and then gave trillions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street. And Merkley's announcement is proof positive that the progressive campaign to stop Bernanke's renomination (which OpenLeft has been a part of) is working. And with a new national poll out showing that Bernanke is wildly unpopular among the American public, there's a very real chance his nomination will be voted down in the committee tomorrow [today]… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Open Left>
I would love to see Bernanke fail to get out of Banking. Jeff Merkley conytinues to impress me, and I’m glad i did volunteer work for his campaign.
19 comments:
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
Calculated Risk reported this gem, from the Time Magazine Person of the Year extended interview with Ben Bernanke, which I couldn't read because I wasn't drunk from drinking the Kool-Aid:
"What's your interest rate?
That I'm earning?
No, on your house. Do you have a mortgage?
Oh, yes, we refinanced.
Oh, perfect. When?
About 5%. A couple of months ago.
Good time.
Yes.
We had to do it because we had an adjustable rate mortgage and it exploded, so we had to."
I hope you and Merkley are right, I sincerely do, but I think Bernacke is a shoo-in.
I agree with Brother Tim, dumping Bernanke would send the signal that the Administration has been pursuing the wrong course on the economy.
The gelded one in the White House lacks the courage to take that step.
Bernanke somehow missed the bubble, missed the explosion of consumer debt and unchecked speculative excess. He "fudged" by telling Congress that the Money Markets were about to crash killing business unless TARP was passed then once the banks got the $ he went ahead and backstopped the Money Markets.
Since the bubble popped he has followed standard FED textbook procedures which means flooding the system with liquidity.
Analogous to when your pitcher has hit or walked 15 batters in a row, putting in a new pitcher. Hardly rocket science.
Janet Yellen of the SF Fed should replace Gentle Ben.
I'm with wise Oso once again. Shit, anyone could do a better job at the Fed, including my pet bunny. At least he doesn't talk.
Or Lisa G.'s pet bunny.Either one,Janet Yellen or the bunny. I discussed the matter with our cat Dulce and she appears to have no clear favorite.
yellen may be ok. but we'd better be careful what we wish for; the name most being floated previous to Bens renomination was larry summers, which would be a catastrophe...
personally, i think the only hope for any real change of course would be to have paul volcker come back in; but the ways he's been bashing bankers & current policy it might take some kind of national emergency for that to transpire...
Personally, I think the only hope for any real change of course would be to eliminate the Fed.
brother tim: its easy to say "eliminate the Fed", but do you have any ideas for a transition? for instance, what do you do with those green pieces of paper that say "federal reserve note" on them? change them in for some script issued by barney frank and nancy pelosi, or whoever's in charge of congress during the palin administration?
rjs-- As a matter of fact, I do have an idea for the transition. Do away with fiat currency, and the debt-based economic growth it fallatiously engenders. Use all current fiat notes to pay goverment taxes with, and then retire them. Go back to a gold/silver based currency system.
The elite wealthy realize (and have for several years) that the fiat system as it is, is unsustainable. There is much proof of this. Just a couple of examples:
1) The housing bubble was created by easy and unscruplious credit. The result was mythical equity. They then offered equity loans to pay off credit cards without cancelling the credit lines. When the housing bubble burst, it left millions below water -- owing more than the home was worth; and leading to record-setting foreclosures. Real Estate is 'real' just as it's name implies, not fiat.
2) Have you noticed the spike in companies that are now dealing in 'scrap gold'? The airwaves and newspapers are chock-full of ads like, 'send us your scrap gold - highest prices paid'. And they're buying it with that near-worthless fiat currency.
The wealthy are preparing for the next crash, my friend, and it's gonna be a doozie.
That should have read 'fallaciously' and 'unscrupulous' -- I should use spell-check :)
brother tim: ive looked into that: there aint nearly enough precious metals in existance to sustain any reasonable economic activity; even the basket of 30 tradable commodities that chinese central banker zhou (forget his full name) proposed wont do it...
re quantities (the aricle is on fraud, but it has the numbers): http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13240
Cute, RJ. Why do you like Volker?
Tim, Banking approved him. Merkley voted 'no' as promised. Sanders objected, so to confirm him will take 60 votes.
Oso, I think Yellen would be an excellent choice.
Lisa, your pet bunny is a close third, behind Yellen and Oso's cat.
Tim, on the issue of the Fed, I have to side with RJ. I think the best solution is to make the Fed a fully government entity and cut the ties between it and Banksters.
Tom & rjs--
Maybe I should have been clearer when I said 'eliminate the Fed'. I was not meaning to do away with the buildings or the idea of a Central Bank. Many people believe that the Federal Reserve is a government entity, which as you know, is not. What I meant was wresting it away from the private banksters, and putting it in government hands. I still insist though that a fiat currency system is doomed to failure.
I'm still waitng for the repercussions of the Fed stopping the publishing of the M3 report. It's coming. When the world discovers how much useless fiat the Fed has printed, all hell is gonna break loose.
Tim, I'm all for taking it away from Banksters. But I see no way to return to hard currency. There just is not enough metal to support it.
let me see if i can put together a coherent reply that answers both questions...the problem the Fed faces, assuming it isnt abolished tomorrow as brother tim would have it, is how to unwind its massive quantitative easing its done during this crisis; its balance sheet has nearly tripled, to leave it that way would eventually cause significant inflation; the problem will be how to withdraw from that without snuffing out any nascent recovery (should we have one); since the likelihood that this will be pulled off without damage is slim, i would rather have someone with experience like volcker heading up the Fed during this crucial period.; (discussions about this exit strategy are typically in the first links in each post on my weekly blog)...another reason i like volcker is the kind of noises he's been making the past few weeks; in speeches in europe he's virtually said banks have no socially redeeming value, and the only useful financiall innovation of the past 20 years has been the ATM...he's also advocating breaking up the complex banks & a return to glass-steagall regulations, and he's the one who can pull that off...i have 3 linked paragraphs last week and 5 this week on volcker from my blog which ill email tomcat and anyone else who requests them...and as far as M3 goes, its no longer just the Fed thats printing money; by issuing bills at virtually 0% interest, the Treasury is actually doing the same thing...a million dollar treasury bill is as liquid as a ten dollar federal reserve note, and should by all rights be considered part of the money supply...
p.s. something i forgot to link to:
this post on MW666...
I was at least hoping the bunny would come in second against Oso's cat. In addition to not making a sound, he also can bite you hard enough to go to the er. I want a recount!
Or I'll take Volker; I like what he's been saying lately and he MAY know more about monetary policy than my bunny. May.
Volker works for me. Lisa, I'll recount, but when the judge is also a cat, the bunny has little chance. ;-)
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