Author: Bonddad

[From the diaries by susanhu.]

President Bush has nominated Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve.  Bernanke has a “name” resume – a resume with a lot of well-respected names on it: Harvard, MIT and Princeton.  I have started to comb through the information available online about him and will present it over the next few days or weeks so people can become better acquainted with him.  Below are excerpts from an interview in 2004.

The trade deficit has lost power to grab headlines.  Every month, the BEA announces the figure, the markets react to the number for a few days, then everybody goes back to their regularly scheduled program until next month.  In addition, the primary mechanism that brings the trade deficit into the public spotlight – a deterioration of the dollar’s value – hasn’t happened since the first of the year.  Starting in January, dollar has rallied versus other currencies because US interest rates are high relative to other countries.

Health care – or the remarkable lack of it available to the US population – is one of my pet issues.  Regrettably, it has flown under the radar for a long time.  This is too bad, because no other issues has such a profound effect on the well being of the middle class.  If people don’t have the opportunity to take care of their basic health, their entire standard of living comes into jeopardy.  

I know – there is no housing bubble; it’s all a liberal fantasy to scare people.  At least, this is what people on the political right say.  According to one pundit on Fox news, there are a few markets that are slightly overpriced but nothing to worry about.   (The FDIC has contradicted this assessment.)  Well, the reality is there is a housing bubble and it is very dangerous for many reasons.  

Workers, however, will receive an average base salary increase of just 3.6 percent next year, according to Hewitt Associates’ 29th annual survey of more than 1,000 organizations. That’s the same that workers received nationwide this year.

Employees are expected to spend an average of $3,136 next year in premiums, deductibles and co-pays, a 12 percent increase from this year, according to Hewitt.

“So that means our entire raise — plus a little extra — is going to pay for those higher health care costs,” said Ken Abosch, business leader in the talent consulting group for the Lincolnshire, Ill.-based firm. “Plus, we’re paying more for energy.”