| Feb 2 (CNBC) — Rising federal budget deficits are posing a significant threat to the U.S. economy and are likely to cause a crisis if not brought under control, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday. Full story here. |
I heard Bernanke say that if we don't get the deficit under control then we could have problems like Europe. I nearly gagged when I heard him say this. He knows better. He absolutely knows better. To conflate the U.S. with Europe is absurd. Completely and mind-numbingly absurd when done by someone of Bernanke's stature.
He has become a major part of the problem.
21 comments:
He can't really think that. What could his motive to say that be?
He works for the financial sector, whose priority is "fiscal discipline," except for themselves.
Mike I was monitoring for a while and heard him too... he is a problem here agree.
It was interesting that Ryan was giving him some shit for "keeping interest rates too low" (which is a tacit admission that the Fed controls rates), but then Ryan lamented that with the Fed "keeping interest rates too low" this was allowing the government to "get away with more spending and deficits" than otherwise and "put off the need for fiscal discipline". Doh!
So both Bernanke and Ryan are still morons in this...
This was sent to me today by a friend as a quote from Thomas Jefferson:
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." (Taxpayer on the hook!)
and;
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." (We're leaving our debt to our grandchildren!)
So even Thomas Jefferson was a MORON in this regard....
I dont think either Bernanke or Ryan knows better, I think neither are capable of understanding these systems intuitively on their own so they listen to others/mainstream beliefs of Monetarism.
Resp,
Matt,
I'm sure you're right about Ryan, but Bernanke MUST know that we can't become the next Greece.
Tell me something I don't already know.
We can become the next Greece. We are nothing special, and our chit stinks just like everyone elses. Read some history.
Why in God's name would you think we couldn't be another Greece when we suffered the very same fate during our Great Depression? How many times has France gone broke in it's history? More than you can count on both hands with more coming.
Anon,
"we couldn't be another Greece "
We're an issuer of our own currency Anon, Greece is not.
And we have no govt liabilities that are not denominated in said self issued currency....
Start looking...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dErG0hC_nVQ
Resp,
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." ]
That was never said by Thomas Jefferson,
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/democracy-will-cease-to-exist-quotation
Matt, I know we issue our own currency and we have reserve status. Will that continue to infinity because everyone here seems to think it can, but history says otherwise. I will ask you the same question as Mike. How many times has France gone broke, and did they issue their own currency, as this seems to be important to you?
When did France go bankrupt?
During the revolution?
What were the political circumstances?
Were they on a gold/metallic standard?
Currency board?
Elective default?
What years are you referring to and I can look into it....
Resp,
Matt, go to a library and check out some books on France's history, and then you can get with me later. You have to go back more than 100 YRS though, and you probably think it's trivial since we are in the hands of The Great And Powerful OZ. Does anyone on this site read history?
Anon,
I think you're referring to "assignats" around the time of the French revolution. They were supposed to be backed by church property that was confiscated by the gov't. Convertibility...that kills you every time.
I can't wait to hear what Helo-Ben says with these great, albeit bogus, numbers for the NFP and more QE? The Labor Participation Rate put out by BLS this morning says we are at a 30 YR low for that rate, and we dropped 1.2 million people to get the bogus number. With Helo-Ben buying 91% of 20 and 30 YR paper we already have QE3, so with improving numbers how does he do a QE4?
Oh the tangled web we weave to deceive!
Mike, I will ask you the same question as Matt. Looking at recorded history, and that means going back many hundreds of years, how many times has the country of France gone completely broke while issuing their own currency and being looked at as one of the super powers of their time?
My point is that just as with France at one point the sun never set on the British Empire while today they are simply trying to keep Scotland within the Union while once again taking on Argentina for God's sake to show their power. It's laughable.
How do we get those stated negative rates, per the info yesterday, for our paper when the 10 YR is up over 6% today? This should be fun watching them twist in the wind trying to justify this new paper.
Note to Helo-Ben:
The numbers need to look chitty to do more QE Benny. You ain't helping your banker friends with bogus albeit positive numbers on employment.
Anon,
Why dont you just tell us how many times France allegedly went bankrupt?
???? What's the big mystery?
Resp,
Matt, I already did in my earlier post. More times than you have fingers. We are nothing special when you look back at history.
The US is not going bankrupt.
I dont get your point at all here. Are you saying that France went bankrupt many times in the past?
If so what was (were) the cause?
Resp,
Matt, if you say so. I will be, as I have been, trying to protect my purchasing power which is what really matters in absolute terms. You believe we cannot go broke, and I believe we can per the history of Empires which we certainly are. Let's agree to disagree, and for all concerned I hope you are right, as the alternative will be far from pleasurable for all concerned.
Anonymous, history refutes the view that the USA can "go broke" or that it can end up anything like Greece. Greece is on the Euro, which is a worse monetary system than the gold standard. Nobody is saying the USA is "special". We just run our economy somewhat less innumerately than Europe, somewhat more innumerately than China.
The US is not a very indebted country. First, it issues its own money, unlike Greece. The UK during the 19th century had a higher debt/GDP than the USA does now, and was even on a gold standard. The US national debt before the crisis was probably too small for financial stability.
Nothing wrong with protecting your purchasing power. But the existence of goods & services you can purchase depends on people being employed to do work to provide you with them. If nobody worked, if unemployment were 100%, then you would not have any purchasing power at all, no matter how much money you had. There is no reason at all to not have the work force always at full employment, which will usually require the government to print money (NFA) to support this. There is no reason to think this would decrease purchasing power, but rather the reverse.
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