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That makes sense

ben-bernanke-real-estate1

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 56, was named “Person of the Year” by Time magazine, the publication announced on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show this morning.

There were six finalists for “Person of the Year,” including U.S. President Barack Obama; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s co-founder and chief executive officer; the Chinese worker, an “increasingly influential group”; General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan; and Jamaican sprinter and Olympic gold-medalist Usain Bolt.

Time, owned by Time Warner Inc., started the annual “Person of the Year” cover story in 1927 with Charles Lindbergh, other winners include: Stalin made it twice, Hitler once.

The magazine chose Obama last year.

With the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, “Person of the year”: Why is it that I’m reminded of these anologies:

Its like rewarding the Captain of the Titanic for getting everyone off the sinking ship after he rammed it into an iceberg. Rewarding a doctor for sewing your leg back on after he accidentally amputated it. Rewarding someone for putting out a fire in your burning house after they set it. Rewarding someone for cleaning up a pile of crap on your floor after they took it.

File Under: At least it wasn’t Barney Frank.

Read other posts about: nothing about real estate

4 Responses to “That makes sense” »»

  1. JD
    Comment by JD | 12/16/09 at 6:21 am

    Please explain how the Fed caused this crisis? I’ve been under the impression that it was caused by banks taking too much risk, wildly speculative lending, and lack of legal oversight by Congress. How exactly did the Fed, which regulates money supply, cause the above to happen?

    Like the man or not (I’m not at all sure that I do) – I can’t see your point here. There’s a lot of populist anger at all the public money that’s been pumped into this mess by the Fed to try to fix it, and whether that was smart or right can be debated. But it quite literally makes no sense to blame the Fed for actually causing this mess.

  2. Comment by John Ford | 12/16/09 at 6:30 am

    JD, thank you for your comment. I think one excerpt from Thomas E. Woods Jr., book entitled Meltdown can sum it up:

    The Fed’s policy of intervening in the economy to push interest rates lower than the market would have set them was the single greatest contributor to the crisis that continues to unfold before us. Making cheap credit available for the asking does encourage excessive leverage, speculation, and indebtedness. Manipulating interest rates and thereby misleading investors about real economic conditions does in fact misdirect capital into unsustainable lines of production and discombobulate the market.

    Your thoughts?

  3. Comment by rich | 12/16/09 at 6:52 am

    I agree John. Back in 2002, the Fed overreacted to the NASDAQ stock market crash and 9/11 and lowered interest rates too much. This action created a number of different but related credit bubbles (the general housing bubble, the commercial real estate bubble, the subprime-ALT/A bubble, and the private equity bubble) all which popped in 2007 and 2008.

    The Fed (along with other Federal agencies) also turned a blind eye to lending practices which were totally crazy from 2002 to 2008. No one was willing to be the party pooper.

  4. Comment by Funny | 12/16/09 at 8:53 am

    JD,

    This blog seems to align itself with the Milton Friedman / Ron Paul school of thought. Gold is good, monetary policy is government and is evil, discretionary in spending in a recession is worse.

    Not sure why Barney Frank seems to be the butt of every joke either; besides being unashamingly liberal in his politics.

    The FHA didn’t cause, and added very little to this economic climate either.

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