Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

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Smashter
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Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2016 8:05 am
Location: Midwest USA

Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

Post by Smashter »

I found this Planet Money interview with Ben Bernanke fascinating. It's from a couple weeks ago, and the topic is the 08 financial crisis.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/ ... n-bernanke

Of course, he takes credit for fixing things while dodging (almost) all responsibility for the crisis. His cavalier, laid back attitude caught me off guard.

To me, the most striking part was when he said that 98% of the the Fed's actions throughout the crisis were simply "theater" and that it was very important to project the image that they were doing something when in reality, they weren't. Bernanke basically states outright that he spent most of the crisis defending himself in front of congress, eating a bunch of pizza, and praying the bank bailouts worked.

I guess my question is, should I be happy that 98% of the Fed's actions are theater, since they seem to do more harm than good when they act? And should I feel naive for not realizing that most of what they did was smoke and mirrors?

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

Post by Stahlmann »

Is it possible to make good decisions on a such scale?
He played the game well for the owners class.

ThisDinosaur
Posts: 997
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:31 am

Re: Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

Post by ThisDinosaur »

If real wealth is raw materials, productive assets, etc., then currency manipulation (read:banking) can never be the primary driver of an economy. Money can facilitate transactions and the Fed can redistribute wealth. That's about it.

Dragline
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Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

Post by Dragline »

It will be interesting to compare that book with one I read recently, "Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World" (2010), which was about the central bankers of the US, the UK, France and Germany in the period of about 1915-1936.

These positions do involve a lot of "smoke and mirrors", and after a time central bankers seem to start believing their own hype, when their powers are actually somewhat limited. They also seem to create convenient foils for the politicians.

The only one that ever really impressed me was Volcker.

BRUTE
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Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:20 pm

Re: Ben Bernanke Peddling His Book is Entertaining, Scary

Post by BRUTE »

more court jesters than actors, but all of the above answers seem true. agreed on Volcker. no fucks given.

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