If Bernanke Did Not Know the Fed’s Mission, Would That Be News?
Dean Baker asks a central question:
If Bernanke Did Not Know the Fed’s Mission, Would That Be News?
Not at the WSJ, nor it seems anywhere else. Yesterday, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke referred to the “our dual mandate, which is growth and inflation.” In fact, the dual mandate is full employment (defined as 4.0 percent unemployment) and price stability. Presumably Bernanke had unemployment in mind when he said “growth,” but it is striking that he would not use the right term. The two of course are not synonymous.
Thanks to Nicole Woo.
–Dean Baker
You focused on one of his misstatements, the one confusing employment and growth, but it’s also interesting that he cited “inflation” as one of the goals, not “price stability”. A Freudian slip?
Ah, but growth in the economy may be more likely to achieve full employment for bankers.
I would guess that Bernanke is wiser and smarter than was Greenspan. The difference being that Greenspan headed the Fed when the economy was basically doing quite well, so he didn’t get much flack. Bernenke is at the head when the economy is in deep deep trouble, so he gets lots of flack. It isn’t Bernanke who is so bad; its his problems that are so bad.
Bernanke revealed that he is essentially a criminal when he advised congress to pay down the national debt by stealing from Social Security “because that’s where the money is.”
Or maybe he just doesn’t know that Social Security is not “the government’s money” to do with as it will. It is the money people deposit with the government on the promise it will be protected from inflation and returned to them when they need it for retirement.
I wish you’d stop and think about this. We appear to have a govenment… Congress and the Administratioin who no longer even know what Social Security is. They think it’s a giant pot of money and it’s perfectly optional whether “the government” spends it on bailouts for Wall Street or “welfare” for the old.
And if you don’t understand it, or don’t stop them from stealing it, you may get to find out the difference between “welfare” and insurance.
He simply forgot the propaganda. The Fed’s only purpose is to keep bank profits private, while socializing the losses. The Fed is a private corporation owned by the banks, and it behaves as such. It’s independent of the government, but not of the banks. Abolish fractional reserve banking, the banks license to print money, and you don’t need the Fed.
DDT
you could be right for all i know. but it seems to me the ability of govrnments, at least, to print money from time to time is a good thing, as long as done responsibly.
the problem is that the criminals have got ahold of the government.
you have to understand that “money” is not wealth. it is a lubricant… enabling transactions. there are times when the flow of transactions begins to seize up because the flow of money has gotten blocked somewhere.. like a failure of confidence in the banks. then a little easing of the money supply can restore the ability of the people to make transactions.. which is where wealth comes from.
but as far as the propaganda lapse goes.. no problem apparently.
not a peep in the mainstream press:
BERNANKE ADVISES CONGRESS
TO ROB FROM SOCIAL SECURITY
“THAT’S WHERE THE MONEY IS”
I didn’t see that headline. did you?
Let me just anticipate the meme from right. Social security = entitlement = theft and thus stealing from thieves is not theft. QED.
With Bernanke’s disingenuous reference to the “entitlements”, I can’t help but think the end game has begun. These bastards have been after SS since they arrived in 2001.
Paulson was the Trojan Horse sent in by Wall Street to bring home the SS money. Just think of the WS wet dream about the income stream to the bankers by diverting SS withholding into stocks, bonds, and commodities. Woudn’t that have been nice ?
IMO, the dottering Greenspan turned over the keys to the heir aspparent, Bernanke, and most of this mess is his. Why the hell do we have to live with the Southern comfort, Plantation Capitalism. We don’t. Bernanke and O’Bama are the smoothest centrist Republicans since Bill Clinton.
Guest
I would just observe that Eisenhower was considered a centrist Republican and he said the enemies of Social Security were “stupid.”
Clinton and Obama appear to suffer from a different kind of centrism. They don’t believe in truth, so they are prepared to compromise with anyone over anything. It helps that they get a lot of money from Wall Street.