Bernanke’s Creativity?

Posted on December 3, 2009

Here was my favorite quote on Bernanke:
Earlier on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rose to Bernanke’s defense.
“He did things that had never been done in the past with enormous creativity and bravery, frankly,” he told CNBC. “The president has full confidence in him and we are confident he will be confirmed.”

Of course, as I’ve mentioned in the past, there nothing at all creative about what Bernanke and Geithner have done during the financial crisis. They have simply printed vast sums of money and given it for free to the banks. Not one creative or original solution has been implemented. It is the same stupidity that has been guiding US economic policy for over a decade.

In the process of implementing yet another bailout of crooked financial instituations, Obama’s economic team has caused a severe drop in the dollar, and driven up commodity prices, which ultimately causes additional harm to the vast majority of the US population (Note: The government comically always excludes from the inflation figures the costs of products that one actually needs to live, e.g. energy, which is why the government can always falsely claim that inflation is low). They have not done one thing to solve the underlying economic crisis in the country and put the financial system on firmer ground.

Ultimately, a major restructuring of the banking system, and tough negotiations with creditors + CDS gamblers would have required some creativity, and bravery. A maintenance of the status quo, printing trillions of dollars, and failing to get any concessions from creditors/CDS gamblers, requires zero creativity or bravery.

As I’ve stated in a previous post, a well-programmed computer can do a better job at the Fed than any human. Of course, computers lack creativity, which is why they can’t run an economy in crisis. However, if the choice was between a computer or Bernanke, I’d much rather have a computer as our Fed Chairman when the next crisis hits. At least it would be impartial in doling out bailouts. That’s unless of course Goldman doesn’t get their hands on the Fed bailout code, inserting the “give all printed money to Goldman and bankrupt their competitors” algorithm.

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