Now that he’s heading out the door, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke feels free to say that the Republicans have been completely wrong about how to fix the economy.
Bernanke, wrapping up his final month on the job, said in a speech Friday that the nation’s fiscal course in recent years has been overly restrictive. As lawmakers looked to cut into the deficit by cutting spending and increasing taxes in recent years, Bernanke argued against that penny-pinching.
“Excessively tight near-term fiscal policies have likely been counterproductive,” he said in remarks before the American Economic Association.
Ever since the financial crisis and recession, the Fed has entered uncharted territory in its efforts to prop up the economy. Bernanke argued that Washington’s obsession with the deficit over the last few years may have missed the mark, and that if the two institutions had worked together to improve the immediate economy, everyone would have been better off.
“With fiscal and monetary policy working in opposite directions, the recovery is weaker than it otherwise would be,” he said. “Monetary policy has less room to maneuver when interest rates are close to zero, while expansionary fiscal policy is likely both more effective and less costly in terms of increased debt burden when interest rates are pinned at low levels.”
Yes, of course. Why borrow money when it is nearly free? Why increase aggregate demand when there is high unemployment?
All the deficit scolds have accomplished is to weaken the economic recovery and create a bunch of financial and budgetary illiterates.
Why did he use highfalutin financial terms, which the Reich-Wing thought-leaders can twist into pretzels for their rubes?
Not that their rubes will understand anything anyway – because they don’t want to understand anything other than what they already believe to be true!
Why couldn’t he say, “It’s the Conservatives and Republicans fault that we’re down this sh*tter!
And it’s been their plan all along, since Nixon got elected, and Reagan started that idiotic “Trickle-down” nonsense.
The Conservatives in this country would like nothing more than for the United States of America to be a Banana Republic, like the ones in the past that they created and supported in South and Central America. Adios, amigos Norteamericanos!!!”
(Sorry if I butchered that last part – I speak Russian, Ukrainian, and German, but not Spanish. I wish I could.).
The rubes are not reachable, because Black President and Illegitimate Democratic Rule.
Wouldn’t your average Republican lay happy claim to being a supporter of “tight near-term fiscal policies”?These statements from Bernanke are crystal-clear for all those with eyes that see and ears that hear.
Don’t forget funnel money upward and drive down wages. Methinks is a feature, not an accident. Working in tandem, they have recreated the Golden Age.
“All the deficit scolds have accomplished is to weaken the economic recovery and create a bunch of financial and budgetary illiterates.”
It appears that making all these things happen during the term of the first African-American President are the highest priorities for today’s GOP leaders. If there is a Biblical Hell, the chances that these “people” end up in it are high.
These guys simply can’t be this stupid either here or in Europe. The plutocrats want to ensure their wealth in perpetuity. So the best strategy may be to pursue austerity. Why permit progressive policies that may increase your taxes or dilute your control? And there are unwitting folks all over who seem to think austerity is best and deficits evil. So,how do you change that?
Call it what it is – Feudalism – and then weave together a narrative that makes sense to the pig people.
Good luck with the second part. Most are beyond help.