Catch of The Day: Tim Duy

Carpe diem, indeed:

Mr Bernanke’s own appointment in 2005 was a case in point. There were several candidates that year. According to people involved, then-President George W. Bush leaned towards Martin Feldstein, a former economic adviser to Ronald Reagan….

But Mr Feldstein was a director of the insurance company AIG, which restated five years of financial results that May after an accounting scandal.

Note—especially all you Hank Greenberg sycophants—that the AUG restatements were from 2005, long before anyone admitted the Emperor of AIGFP had no clothes.

Go read the whole thing, attending especially to:

So, no, Bernanke does not view quantitative easing as acting only through equity price and related wealth effects, and no, Feldstein shouldn’t either. But somehow he does, or wants to trick you into believing that Bernanke’s only objective is boosting equity prices. Either way, I don’t think this is the intellectual approach we should be looking for in a Fed chair.

Talking your own book as if it were your superior rivals. Feldstein and AIG were perfect for each other.