Bernanke is a complete goof

[kashirin]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

I think Bernanke is developing into something of a disaster as Fed Chairman. He is close to having the markets totally lose confidence in him. The last time that happened was with Jimmy Carter's Fed Chairman, and the results were not pretty.

I said before the last meeting they should cut 50 bps, and I was attacked by many of you. Now, after saying risks were contained, Bernanke will be forced to cut at least 50. Fed futures are now pricing in incredible cuts by summer. He looks like a friggin' idiot. The banking system is coming down around his ears, FNM and FRE will require huge bailouts, there is no way the bond insurers can make good on all their exposure, and people are worrying about the cost of corn or oil? If you want ag prices down, do something about the idiotic ethanol policy. If you want oil down, talk to the Saudis. Oh wait, Bush already did that and they told him to f*ck off.

Bernanke's incompetency is now leading to congress wanting to pass "economic stimulus", which will be some collection of the most mis-guided giveaways possible. Incredibly, Bernanke seems to be encouraging it. He seems to lack the respect of his fellow Fed members, as they seem to feel free to go out and say whatever crosses their mind. This did not happen with Greenspan.

I will repeat my advice. We have a serious financial problem. One way to make things better in a hurry is to lower rates aggressively. There are costs to that policy but they pale in comparision to what we will piss away if somethng isn't done.

I guess you're disaster for this board.
And Bernanke is really bright guy.

He doesn't have a choice and will cut but at least he tries to do it as slow as possible

Cutting rates won't help here
There is plenty liquidity and rates are affordable
But asset bubble must deflate
and Fed must stop give away money

there is no simple solution for this crisis. Maybe we need something extreme - like nationalizing top ten investment banks, forbid hedge funds, license commodity trading, denounce free trade agreements

But cutting rates it's so stupid.

 

[drsteph]

Quote from Daal:

the fed's is choosing a semi-repeat of the 70's to avoid a 30's repeat. and they are right to do that

Yes, you are probably correct. But I think this time the energy equation is different. Oil off - once US economy slows and imports decrease oil prices can really start falling. Note the selloff in schlumberger today. Re-evaluating my energy positions at present.

 

[aPismoClam]

Quote from Bigpipn:

It's different this time. We can't afford to see rates in the mid teens, our debt is too high.

what will our debt be worth when rates are in the mid teens?

 

[Hydroblunt]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

I think Bernanke is developing into something of a disaster as Fed Chairman. He is close to having the markets totally lose confidence in him. The last time that happened was with Jimmy Carter's Fed Chairman, and the results were not pretty.

I said before the last meeting they should cut 50 bps, and I was attacked by many of you. Now, after saying risks were contained, Bernanke will be forced to cut at least 50. Fed futures are now pricing in incredible cuts by summer. He looks like a friggin' idiot. The banking system is coming down around his ears, FNM and FRE will require huge bailouts, there is no way the bond insurers can make good on all their exposure, and people are worrying about the cost of corn or oil? If you want ag prices down, do something about the idiotic ethanol policy. If you want oil down, talk to the Saudis. Oh wait, Bush already did that and they told him to f*ck off.

Bernanke's incompetency is now leading to congress wanting to pass "economic stimulus", which will be some collection of the most mis-guided giveaways possible. Incredibly, Bernanke seems to be encouraging it. He seems to lack the respect of his fellow Fed members, as they seem to feel free to go out and say whatever crosses their mind. This did not happen with Greenspan.

I will repeat my advice. We have a serious financial problem. One way to make things better in a hurry is to lower rates aggressively. There are costs to that policy but they pale in comparision to what we will piss away if somethng isn't done.

Man, you just love being hoodwinked, don't you?

 

[Bigpipn]

Quote from aPismoClam:

what will our debt be worth when rates are in the mid teens?

Our debt will be worthless b/c we are bankrupt. There will be hundreds of billions of dollars in bond defaults coming up.

$9trln right now 11.5% rates will mean >$1trln in interest alone on our debt....

 

[thecalip]

Quote from day7793:

Look you are the moron who doesn't understands how things work.

Everything is going down but " energy prices/gas" keeps going up and causing inflation. Nobody in the Federal government can put a lid on that and that's why these pressures were countered with increasing rates that eventually killed the real estate market. Now the real estate market is dragging the economy and the stock/ equities markets into a downward spiral with mortgage mess. Fed has no control on domestic oil companies or even our Congress doesn't wants to lift an eyebrow. Consumers are very upset and concerned with gas prices and the woes will not stop here.

A rate cut will help a long way, but the gas energy prices and the profit taking need to be curbed as well.

You are the freaking moron. The only way to save the economy is raise rate. Oil and Energy are all base on USD. When rate is cut, USD sink, and lead to higher energy price, which lead to everything higher. The real estate mess is cause by historical low interest rate. Of course, greedy bastards too. They get themselves into the mess, and they should find way to save themselves. So you are saying, we should save the real estate market and punish those who actually honest by savings like myself?

Nowadays, I don't feel savings rewarding at all. However ways I calculate, I can NEVER afford to buy a house by with a traditional loan.

 

[MKTrader]

I can't imagine anything worse...Unless you add price controls to that draconian list. Those worked so wonderfully in the 70s.

Let the markets take care of the excesses...it may mean things get a lot worse or maybe it's just another moderate drop from here. (No one can really say at this point, despite all the "expert" opinions). At least stocks aren't completely overvalued like they were in 1999.

It could be that the 2000-2002 wasn't just a 3 year bear market. Maybe it was a start of something like 1966-1982, where stocks basically stay flat for a long, long time.

After the huge 1982 to 1999 runup, that wouldn't be too surprising or even doomsdayish...just the normal course.

Quote from kashirin:

Maybe we need something extreme - like nationalizing top ten investment banks, forbid hedge funds, license commodity trading, denounce free trade agreements

But cutting rates it's so stupid.

 

[jonnyy40]

2000-2003 was set to last longer hence Iraq. Watch those Iranian speedboats cause many more incidents as time goes on.

 

[Hydroblunt]

Quote from thecalip:

The only way to save the economy is raise rate.

LOL, saving the actual economy of USA requires a complete revamping of the financial & government system.

Raising rates will cause a slight crash and they are not ready to do that yet. In fact, that's not the plan anyway, not IMO.

Wake up already, the current result is success not failure.

 

[thecalip]

Quote from Hydroblunt:

LOL, saving the actual economy of USA requires a complete revamping of the financial & government system.

I completely agreed, however, this WON'T happens any time soon. So the best to do now is raise rate to control inflation.