Bernanke to Unemployed: Drop Dead

[kpete]

I think Matt Yglesias captures this dynamic pretty well.

Imagine you’re teaching a kid archery. You tell him to aim for the bullseye. But you also warn him that if the arrow goes to the left of the bullseye, he’s going to be in big trouble while if it goes to the right of the bullseye you won’t really mind. Well, naturally the kid’s never going to hit the bullseye. He’s going to shoot too far the right. And that’s the Fed right now. They’ll act to prevent total collapse of output and employment but what really worries them is inflation. They’re so worried about inflation that they’re happy to have an output gap that persists for years and years and years.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/04/bernanke-calls-for-anemic-recovery/
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/04/27/bernanke-to-unemployed-drop-dead/

[elleng]

1. 'Scuse me, but this is an inflammatory and b.s. headline.

'Bernanke Calls For Anemic Recovery.'

He's describing the current situation, NOT 'calling for' such.

Feels kind of like birther's continuing nay-saying; don't like the facts, make stuff up.

Sorry

[Celebration]

4. and it isn't just the headline that is bs

Sheesh.

[Celebration]

2. oh good grief

What does he expect Bernanke to do? He has driven interest rates down to zero percent. That does not help our senior citizens, by the way. Prudent people who saved for retirement are getting hurt big time by Bernanke.

Is Bernanke supposed to get up there and say that we aren't concerned about possible inflation (in fact, if you listened to him, he didn't sound at all hawkish on inflation to me!). Still, if he came out and acted too blase about inflation the dollar would tank even more, the price of oil would go up, etc. We don't know how QE2 will turn out, but you can be sure that Bernanke's policies favor the unemployed in the economy over fighting inflation.

The hawkish budget cutters? That isn't the Fed. I would prefer an easier policy from the executive branch, in the short term, but I think the Fed should hold short term interest rates somewhere OVER zero percent.

[On the Road]

3. I Think Firedoglake is Misunderstanding What Bernanke Said

He is being about as stimulative as it is possible for the Fed to be with traditional tools, and has even gone beyond that with the QE programs. The only thing he hasn't done is reinstate Volcker's monetarist experiment and grow the money supply by X% a year.

His biggest challenge is keeping the economy on the path to recovery and out of another recession. And so far it has worked.

On the other hand, overly stimulative policy is one of the things that got us into this mess throughout the last decade. It is not an automatic ticket to job creation.

[Turbineguy]

5. But.......

Rick Santelli (CNBC) said if he were to ask Bernanke questions they would be about an average family making 50,000 per year coping with rising commodity prices and seniors losing their savings. I guess he's given up being a teabagger.