Ben Bernanke Is A Walking Economic Fallacy

[PromiseLandAkitas]

http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/30/ben-bernanke-trade-china-opinions-columnists-john-tamny.html

...The Fed chairman has no idea what he's talking about....

[Rival]

What do you expect from an economist who believes that economists are God and that Keynes was their one true prophet?

[feelingweird]

They say that if you had read Mien Kaumpf in the 1920's that you could have just sat in abstract awe as Adolf Hitler literally just worked from that book and you could have seen it all falling into place like a carefully laid plan.

Ben Bernanke has written many books and gave many speeches as to what he would do when confronted with the current set of problems. That is, people don't want to borrow and banks don't want to lend even in the face of a 0% overnight rate.

He thought the idea preposterous but he had a list of ideas that he would work through before he would let that happen(including floating the idea of a NEGATIVE overnight rate, so don't forget that one). But pushed to answer the ultimate end to the question, HOW WOULD HE REIGNITE BORROWING and LENDING.. He said he would fly around the country side in a helicopter dumping dollars out the window.

He was of course being funny, but in reality we are not that far from that humor. He has tried everything and nothing is working. For that money to become "inflationary" it must first be borrowed into existence, the US Government can only spend so much before it gets ridiculous. The US GDP is running somewhere around 17 billion and the US gov only makes up about 4 trillion of that right now and even that amount is already resulting in 2 trillion dollar deficits. The government cannot makeup for the shortfalls much longer and Bernanke knows this. He is running out of options.

We are getting really close to a desperation measure. Maybe a direct deposit of 5K dollars into the bank account of every single American. This would be a much more efficient manner in which to spread money. Helicopters are so freaking noisy.

And hence how he is now know as "helicopter" Ben Bernanke.

robert

[Rival]

Direct deposit of 20K into every family bank account would have induced many to pay off their debts; sending that money straight onto the balance sheet of the very banks that Bernanke indicated as needing more capital. The average family would not be crushed under insane debt, the banks would be flush with cash, and the only downside would be the same inflation spectre we already face.

Sure, some would just blow it up their noses, but they would deserve what they got. It would have been a much better solution than just writing the banksters blank checks.

[PseudoPhil]

This is how we get hyperinflation. The .gov making direct deposits as the credit markets lock up and banks start to look very shaky. Everybody pulls physical cash from the banks when the drastic plastic stops working.

Got a wheelbarrel?

ETA : I suggest a title change to "Ben Bernanke Is A Walking Economic Phallus"

[Big Scotsman]

We are getting really close to a desperation measure. Maybe a direct deposit of 5K dollars into the bank account of every single American. This would be a much more efficient manner in which to spread money. Helicopters are so freaking noisy.

That may get things rev'd up, but lets look at the math.

$ 5000 x 305,000,000 (# of Americans) = $1 525 000 000 000 or $ 1.5 Trillion

This is a trillion that would have to be borrowed, so divide a 1.5 trillion by 12 (as in months) and that gives you $125,000,000,000 (or one hundred twenty-five billion).

That means we would have to auction off $125 billion each and every month just to pay for that fiasco.  How about quarterly auctions, only $375 billion!  Just add that onto the 1.5 trillion that the new Obamacare will cost, so double all those numbers, and that is without interest attached.

I agree with PseudoPhil.  That would guaranteed hyperinflation, which I think is where this is ultimately headed. 
                                

[risquebznss]

The self proclaimed elite propeller heads in Washington should spend a few days with a small business.  Higher taxes and more regulation make small business people pucker up and become very conservative.   Low rate money is like pushing on a rope.

[Animus]