GOP Leaders To Bernanke: Don’t Try And Improve The Economy Again

Yea-ah, that's all that the "new" jobs bill "really" is . . . just another 1/2 trillion dollar rip-off put upon the backs of the taxpayers to keep state corporatism's "special interests" funded. . !

They don't fix...they destroy.

Insert cricket sounds here!!!

more cricket sounds here

The Ironic thing here, the Fed only destroys too.

These folks act like foreign agents who don't know anything about our government. They are meddling not only with domestic politics , but their candidates are meddling in foreign policy of which they know nothing.

By that measure, we are seriously batshit fucking crazy.

the Fed is doing this on purpose perhaps?

I think it's more that they're a one trick pony.

If you look at the state of the world and its financial markets, I think it's becoming increasingly clear that no one has any idea what the fuck they're doing.

This "greed is good," Greenspan ideology is really all they have going for them. They don't understand how to act responsibly and manage a complex system. Most of these people are only trained just to make money.

Yes, like cutting taxes on the rich and expecting trickle down of jobs and prosperity.

Are you guys responding to a comment that got deleted or something? Because what you're saying isn't even relevant to the conversation.

Also, I'm a little confused as to why I got voted down.

You're going to have to justify why massanova is being "stupid" in this instance. There's a whole lot more than partisan bickering happening here. Perhaps you should look deeper into how this nation's banking and monetary system has been set up to insure that wealth is systematically extracted from the poor and middle classes into the hands of the wealthy and banking sectors.

"You're going to have to justify why massanova is being "stupid" in this instance."

Why did I respond to maasanova the way I did? When, which I thought I WAS being explicit, maasanova stated: "the Fed is doing this on purpose perhaps?"

That prompted me to provide the "conspiracy theorist" cartoon.

Then YOU posted, "Are you guys responding to a comment that got deleted or something? Because what you're saying isn't even relevant to the conversation."

I responded to YOUR comment about batshit craizness with MY comment being upside down and bassackwards.

Of which, I was agreeing with YOU and NOT maasanova.

Did I NOT advance a disclaimer by saying, "I am not casting aspersions your way."?
I'm JUST asking"......to maasanova?

Where do you see words that I said maasanova was stupid? You, Sir, are reaching out farther than your arm's length can grasp on that one!

ONLY if maasanova saw HIMSELF within my post, then and only then will you see him trying to fit that "shoe" to his OWN foot!

Then you further asked, "Also, I'm a little confused as to why I got voted down."

I had "up"(ed) your post prior and have no idea who has been "downing" them, as I have also been the recipient of my share...unfairly I might add!

Dispersions or Aspersions?

Aspersions are dispersed.

Of which I had none to dispense.

Thanx for catching my "faux pas"! It's been a looong day and I have miles to go before I sleep!

The Republicans have only had two policies for the last 40 years, the same trickle down economic drivel that has made paupers of us all.

Noone really knew how bad things were until lately . Bush policies almost destroyed the whole country and those idiots running for President want to do the same thing all over again.No common sense in that at all.

You hit the nail EXACTLY on the head. Myopic thinking has gotten us into this mess, at this point, there is no way to avoid a crisis.

Mark my words, there will be a Commodities bubble next. Just look at fuel prices, supply is high, demand has not risen yet prices are rising...why? Commodities speculation. Only when the Commodities bubble hits, it will cause more than just economic unrest, people will actually starve as a result. There is a lot of speculation (some of which I tend to agree with) that a lot of the "Arab Spring" was the result of rising food prices due to commodities speculation.

When banks start buying wheat, you can bet people will start starving.

No one really knew about how bad things were until lately? That is completely untrue.

I got burned badly in the dot com bubble. I put what little savings I had left into a money market 401K and stuck with slow earnings. But my retirement account isn't going to be much for me and my wife if and when we can retire. The only thing we really have going for us is that we have chosen not to have children--not because we don't want them, but because we can't afford to raise one. Our hopes are that our home will be paid for by the time we retire and that we can live off our Social Security until we die.

We don't live in a housing bubble area, and we're VERY fortunate that we aren't in massive debt.

In the sense that we didn't get totally fucked, I'd say we won. However, that doesn't mean shit when we know that the majority of Americans got totally screwed.

Thanks Vic. I don't normally like to respond to the silly name-calling, especially when there is no reason for it.

The only reason I suggested that the Fed is doing this on purpose is because they have to know what the outcome of their policies are, have been and will be in the future. Every other economist now seem to recognize that the Fed's policies have been disastrous since Greenspan.

"Thanks Vic. I don't normally like to respond to the silly name-calling, especially when there is no reason for it." - maasanova.

Really? Is that what you think I did to you?

FYI...I did NOT use any "silly name calling" on your hiney.

If you can read fluent English, try rereading my comment again.

But you have a nice day with your uncanny ability to see things that aren't there.

Adios, muchacho.

Gzzzzzzzzzzzz, Louise!

Remember back in the 90s when everybody thought that Apple was going to tank? Yeah, I was one of those dumbasses that put my 401k money in a NASDAQ equity index fund and got bent over and fucked in 2001. But I was young then, and was able to absorb the near 50% beat down. I resolved from there that I wouldn't play the stock market ever again. Hence, the money market decision.

And as far as gold goes, I know you can't eat it or run a car on it or afford enough of the stuff to roof a house with it. I just play it safe and hope that the government doesn't end up defaulting on their bonds.

Perhaps that's why I smoke and will probably go back to drinking heavily when and if I retire. Just figure it's best to die early....

There's no reason to justify gold trading at $1800 an ounce absent a speculative bubble. Who knows how leveraged up that price really is?

The sad truth is that it's becoming so clear how the Fed has fucked things up since Greenspan took the wheel (note: REAGAN PLANT). How can one not wonder whether this whole scheme wasn't designed to fuck us all? Are they intentionally crashing our dollar? I don't know that, but I do know that they're crashing our dollar and economy with their policies.

vivid, yet eloquent

that's a up vote

ha ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha ah ha

I want to live long and watch the thieves ass burn and it going to be a hot fire with all the worthless paper piled upon their financial headquarters

still repeating still repeating

the Fed has fucked things up since Greenspan took the wheel (note: REAGAN PLANT)

"Are they intentionally crashing our dollar?"

Why would anyone believe that? Isn't that how they keep "score" as to who is winning? People seem to not understand that the money isn't the problem. It's that YOU or I aren't getting any!

And where will money be sent to "make more"? China? Europe? South America? RUSSIA???

Nopers....EVERYONE and his brother AND sister is putting their money RIGHT here in the good Ol' U.S. of A.!

Well, all except AMERICAN companies, because if they did, why, they'd HAVE to pay taxes on all of it.

So, you see? Not one thin dime of American money will lose value. There are way too many countries that are investing in America...except AMERICANS!

Look at China, it tops the list with 1.2 trillion dollars INVESTED in America. Then comes Japan, Europe, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, U.A.E., Korea, India and Russia.

They all have faith in the dollar...since they own so much!

If anyone is left holding an empty bag, it's the middle class. And the IMF and the Fed are poised to make even MORE money this next Treasury Bond sell-off cycle!

Now that's a plan I would say their instigating!

cmc101...there are sooo many EXPERTS here that probably don't have two dimes to rub together yet they're tossing out financial scenarios like they're money moguls!

The NEXT financial shoe to drop is going to be student loans!!!!

When all those "graduates" can't pay off all that money the government has backed because there are NO jobs for them to make money to pay them back...the GOVERNMENT...NOT THE BANSKTERS...will have to make good on them!!!

And if you think that the housing bubble was bad..well, AT LEAST the housing market has SOME capital to claim in the form of homes.

Thers' not one DAMN THING to take back from MILLIONS of student loans that won't be paid for.

UNLESS...that's how you get all the "indentured servants" to work for peanuts!

And I don't give a SHIT about INFLATION.....it's DEFLATION I'm worried about!

Time for me to get off this merry-go-round of financial whiz-bang experts spewing about what the Fed is doing this or that and they feel a pinch in their back pockets and think they're a target for some GRAND SCHEME to take their money.

I have news for all of them. They don't have anything that the banksters want.

They already have it!

Ciao, adios, arrivederci, dasvidanya, guten tag, bon jour, konichiwa and Ni Hao!

"Isn't that how they keep "score" as to who is winning?"

Look around and see how the incredibly wealthy own real assets--like shit tons of land, resources, buildings, infrastructure, and politicians. What do we own? A little equity in our homes, a car and a virtual piece of paper with some number associated with it--that we believe is worth something.

"People seem to not understand that the money isn't the problem."

But it IS a problem when the money we've saved over the years won't buy us jack shit when we need it--especially when it's being devalued or diluted. It IS a problem when money is being used as a means of extracting REAL wealth from our middle class in the form of excessive interest, speculative bubbles and a false sense of security. Worse still is when the whole monetary system decouples itself from real assets and becomes nothing but one giant CDO--which is what is really troublesome IMO.

"Not one thin dime of American money will lose value."

Well, maybe if it's made from silver like they used to be....of course, the alloy they use now may very well be worth something more than ten cents.

"There are way too many countries that are investing in America"

They're investing in America because we buy THEIR shit instead of OUR shit. Why would they want to lose customers?

"If anyone is left holding an empty bag, it's the middle class."

Sounds to me that that is what happens when the dollar crashes....and the little piggies sprout wings and fly, fly away. Just like they did in Argentina in the late nineties. And I think that is the plan upon which you and I can find some common ground.

"Why is it so difficult to see how the robber barons play their game?"

Money IS their game. First through inflation. Then through deflation. They get it all.

They create the bubbles. They induce investors. They lend out more money than they have to induce margin investing. They create the panic through their corporate media. They crash the bubble. They get the bailout. We lose everything.

The secret is to not be greedy and keep one's eyes on the real value of what they own. And yes, be like George Bailey and not be stampeded. But that's easy to do when you're not listening to fuckwits like Jim Cramer or watching corporate news.

AMEN, Brother....AMEN!!!

}8^)

That's how I'm laughing, too!

That CRAZY ;augh while I'm faced with the insanity that plays out DAILY!

Gawd, it's soooo ridiculous!

+^d

}8^)

And yes, we can finish our armchair economist diatribe with a little bit of the Ozzman and find solace in knowing that the whole system is CrAzY!!!

+^d

Whew! I'm glad I haven't pissed off and made another "unfriendly"!

I've got more than my share of 'em here as it is!

}:^\

+^d RB@U2!

P.S. I spell crazy like CRazY...with he "caps" spelling out CRY!

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

I didn't get that impression.

Face it, it's not as if credit isn't readily available right now. It's just not being handed out.

More "easing" is just going to cause inflation at best and a seriously dangerous bubble at worst.

Credit may not be available to most people or businesses, but it is available to some. Those 'some' are the centrally connected international finance and insurance powerhouses that get first advantage of new money entering the economy via central bank facilities. If Republicans want that to stop (as we all should), they are asking for de facto credit contraction and hence contraction in the absolute supply of money.

Oh, it's available to most people or business. However, it's in the form of high-interest credit cards (I'm back to receiving several pre-approved offers per day again). It's just that there's no profit in lending at market rates.

That's what this whole banking syndicate has done to our, along with the rest of the world's, economy.

I suppose that you're technically right in that sense.

Well, fuck it then. Let's cause the contraction. Deflation is a seriously dangerous risk, but the crash might be inevitable at this point unless we get our act together. So why make it worse with trillions more in "easing?"

Do keep in mind though that they are doing so against the backdrop of this announcement last week:

"The Bank of England joined the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan on Thursday to announce that they would flood money markets with dollars over the coming months."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/15/world-banks-flood-markets-with-do...

The Republicans may be calling for de facto deflation, but the world's central banks appear to be interested in anything but.

In the end, I suspect, it won't matter what world central banks want. Deflation has been the natural market tendency for the last four years, and still will be long after all their efforts have failed and the political will to fight it has evaporated.

Christ, we really are fucked.

You think we might be looking at the end of the finance house of cards?

If this falls flat, it could be apocalyptic.

What I will say with the utmost certainty is that the current monetary system, as it exists today, interconnected as it is, is coming to an end and that the transition will be difficult. What comes next, I can only speculate.

If I had to make an educated guess though, I would suspect more integration is the direction we're being pushed in. If that is correct, then crisis would necessarily have to be part of the plan.

A world currency...? That would validate a lot.

We are a debtor nation and a debtor society. Americans are encouraged to borrow to the hilt and spend the money at Wal-Mart by the government, always have been. There is no incentive to saving and living within your means, none. Credit is too easy to get, you should have to prove income and assets. The housing bubble might not have started if that were the case. Credit needs to be contracted. In my opinion.

Deflation is absolutely inevitable, the entire monetary economy has been so pumped artificially for so long that it is totally unavoidable.

Don't you all understand?

The ONLY game in town for the working stiffs is that suckers fiasco.

If your name is one of many financial institutions or banks, there's so much money floating around that they can't count it all!

They're RUNNING OUT OF PLACES TO KEEP IT!

The issue here is...YOU can't get NEAR it!

I'm not about to disagree with your analysis of Republicans, but Bernanke has been a fucking joke so far. Not that there was ever a head of the Fed who was some resoundingly competent figure who saved the economy.

They look out for banking interests at the expense of economic interests. That's why they're making a big fuss about the debt instead of doing something about unemployment while simultaneously unleashing the greatest release of credit to banks this country has ever seen.

I have never been much of a fan of the Fed either.

Took the words right out of my mouth. It almost seems like this makes me a Republican apologist...which I am NOT...but for god's sake...let's stop pretending like Bernanke gives a shit, or is even qualified to help the US Economy. The Fed is NOT a part of the US Government, it is a PRIVATE bank, with PRIVATE interests.

You don't have to be an expert to see that someone is fucking something up and you don't need to know the ins and outs of a system to know when someone is being corrupt.

I am an economist...

And yet your opinion carries no more weight than a random idiot in today's everyone's-an-expert world. You more than anyone should know the danger of that.

Too true.

I don't deny that, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about what was, in all honesty, a fairly mild letter to the Fed asking them not to hand out trillions of dollars without at least a notion that it would actually improve the economy.

Keep in mind, this is not stimulus spending. This is a kind of shadow bailout extending huge lines of credit to banking institutions already given literally trillions of dollars from both the Federal Government and the Federal Reserve.

We need to get over this idea that the Fed is sacred. They are fucking odious, and we need to rein them in.

The worst thing I can imagine is today's Republicans getting in there and "fixing the FED".

Yes, the FED needs oversight and significant changes, and I have no idea how or by whom, by not by them for fuck's sake. You'd have to be insane to want to let Cantor and McConnell get their filthy hands inside the workings of the FED.

Not to shit on you personally, but I consider your field of expertise to be about as laudable as that of political science, and about as useful. And the stats and science seem to support me on that.

Economists are usually nothing more than business buffs who parrot status quo and always act so surprised every time a crash rolls around as a result of their libertarian nonsense.

With the exception of about a dozen famous ones, mainstream economists have not predicted a single downturn or upturn practically ever, nor have they offered substantial advice on how to actually manage it.

Free trade, deregulation, privatization, the neglect of manufacturing, the cult-like worship of finance/casino capitalism and lower taxes all demonstrably have destroyed the prosperity of this country. Yet not only do economists still parrot these positions, they still pretend like they *work* even against the actual fucking data.

Literally, economists are only slightly better than a dart board for making decent investments and economic decisions. That's not me being rude, they did a study on it.

Not every economist believes in Capitalism and the wonders which come with it. Most which I have had to deal with believe in the opposite, but I come from a relatively leftist progressive background.

Good video. Alan Grayson was such an asset to the House in that he was smart enough to understand the complexities of our monetary system to the point where he could pinpoint Bernake's criminality . It's a shame he lived in a primarily conservative district in Florida. Some of the best clips you will ever see from C-span consist of Alan grayson grilling Ben Bernake.

Now THAT is a true statement!..LOL...I don't think there is more than 6 people in all of Congress I think I would trust to "fix" the Fed....lol..

I've always said, if it takes a degree to understand economics...then your system is a scam. Economics is really very simple. It only requires a degree when you are fucking with the economy and don't want everyone else finding out.

Incidentally, I have no degree whatsoever, and I knew both the dot com bubble and the housing bubble would cause a huge collapse. Next up...Commodities!

The point of the article is "Hands off the Fed". The title is arbitrary.

Even worse, the Fed should be audited immediately, not given free reign. The Fed is who we need to be regulating, if not getting rid of altogether.

Then the point of the Article is ludicrous. You think the "people" should hot have any oversight in the monetary policy of the nation's own MONEY?!