Ben Bernanke says he is no longer a Republican because the GOP has lost its economic policy mind

[swag]

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/2015/10/09/ben-bernanke-has-had-it-with-stupid-gop-economics

Ben Bernanke Is Fed Up

By Chad Stone

Oct. 9, 2015 | 11:30 a.m. EDT

It's the stupid economics. That's why he's no longer a Republican, former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tells us in his new memoir. Bernanke says he "lost patience with Republicans' susceptibility to the know-nothing-ism of the far right." Here's part of his indictment:

They saw inflation where it did not exist and, when the official data did not bear out their predictions, invoked conspiracy theories. They denied that monetary or fiscal policy could support job growth, while still working to direct federal spending to their own districts. They advocated discredited monetary systems, like the gold standard.

Bernanke's right; these views aren't conservative – they're kooky. Members espousing them may have made Bernanke's interactions with Congress uncomfortable, but they couldn't stop the Fed from using extraordinary monetary policy measures to try to pull the economy out of the Great Recession.

In Bernanke's harsh but accurate judgment, "fiscal policymakers, far from helping the economy, appeared to be actively working to hinder it." He's talking about Republican congressional efforts to use "must pass" legislation – e.g., raising the legal limit on total federal debt or approving annual spending bills to fund the government – as bargaining chips to achieve deep cuts in government spending, even when the economy is weak.

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[MADem]

1. He pulled a Warren, only twenty years later...!

Better late than never, I say.

[unblock]

2. a bit slow on the uptake, this one.

republicans lost all economic credibility in the early reagan years, they've just made it more obvious since then.

[hifiguy]

16. Eeyup. David Stockman let all the cats out of that bag

thirty years ago.

But better to wise up late than never.

[Hortensis]

3. Well, a lot of us lost patience with Bernanki long before. Any idiot could foresee

that the national real estate bubble everyone from file clerks planning retirement to major banks depended on would burst disastrously. And he's no idiot, any more than the auto executives who rode their gravy train to the very end then hit the public up for bailouts were idiots.

Dissociating himself from the Republicans now isn't going to help him in the history books. At least I hope not.

[-none]

4. Oh goodie, another DINO.

[Teamster Jeff]

6. Beat me to it

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Reagenomics as we know was and is

a disaster from the get go. Old Benie as well as his Bud,Greenundies,and their Felstein Chicago School of Economic Theory would only work in a Fascist State or Single Party Neo-Con Empire.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. Well of course they've lost their mind. They listened to him. nt

[truebluegreen]

8. Did they ever have an economic mind?

I've always thought of it as a hive mind, impervious to facts / reality.

[Hydra]

9. He's busy wallpapering over everything he did to create some sort of legacy

What is it with these RW kooks and their obsession with having some sort of fake entry in the history books? He protected Wall Street enabling Lloyd, Jaime and the rest of his pals to suck up trillions of dollars. He should own his legacy as being a perfect RW tool.

[thesquanderer]

11. Or maybe looking for some post in a HRC administration? (n/t)

[Hydra]

12. Oh God, that would be horrible

But stupider things have happened...in this administration no less.

[Skittles]

10. LOL

ridiculous attempt to make it seem like he wasn't a part of the meltdown

[nevergiveup]

13. Rats jumping a sinking ship.

Don't knock it. It is part of the process and how we prevail in the end.

[McKim]

14. Coming Out with a Book and Help with Sales?

Will he be coming out with a new book soon and is building sales? So now will he help out the rest of us? What talk will he walk?
Will he help Black people get their homes back? show me the money!

[Demeter]

15. Well, he better not register as a Democrat, is all I can say

He won't like it any better in our tent. Our tent may be big, but it doesn't cover alternate realities.

[nxylas]

18. I think he'll be right at home among the Sensible Woodchucks

I bet they're preparing the fatted calf as we speak.

[DFW]

17. Lost its "economic policy mind?"

Does he think they're compos mentis on anything else??