Quote from Cesko:
As far as I know Bernanke specialized (so to speak) in "Great Depression". Doesn't it reflect in what he is doing??
He is overly focussed on this one reference point and the fact that they did not cut rates. There are other more recent examples that will tell him things he clearly does not know, e.g. Japan where they DID cut interest rates but did not allow clearing and bank failure to take place (sound familiar?). Result. A great Depression that lasted 10+ years.
A condition of IMF (i.e US) aid in the South East Asian crisis of '97 was that failed banks and financials that the central bank was supporting in the same way the Fed is supporting banks now were CLOSED DOWN. Just by coincidence GS and LEH then came in the wake of the IMF and bought the assets for pennies on the dollar and made huge profits. Why is the medecine the US dished out elsewhere not applicable to US banks when they are insolvent?
This academic buffoon/bank poodle, whichever he is has to go as does the Fed. Rogers is right, Bernanke is out of control. It is insane that the whole world is dramatically impacted and held to ransom by decisions made by a handful of banks/a committee of academic buffoons. You only have to look at the boom and bust history of the US post 1913 to see that the Fed does not achieve what it was supposedly set up to achieve.