October 30, 2009
Quote of the Day
The Fed will not reject it when we, I promise you, next year, take up legislatively the issue. And I think it’s very clear. You should not have private citizens like the presidents of the regional banks voting on policy. -- Rep. Barney FrankI know that there is little common ground on the FOMC around ThreeSources. But I think we might all agree that having the professional politicians in Frank's Finance Committee take over for the amateur private citizen bankers is NOT the solution.
This from the inestimable and unspellable James Pethokoukis, who suggests "...it is clear Congress wants to have more influence over the Fed. This, right at the time when global financial markets will have to remain confident America will not inflate its way out of its debt."
Fear not, we'll soon have Bernanke's unrepressed, overindulgent "experimentation" combined with Frank's half-incompetent, half-malicious "Dr. Evil" blubbering!
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at November 2, 2009 11:25 AMAugust 27, 2009
Twelve More Opinions
Kudlow asks the Caucus: "Did Obama Make the Right Choice in Re-nominating Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman?"
It's 9-3 yes with some surprising party line ecumenism.
August 26, 2009
Second Opinion
Russ Roberts (buy his superb The Price of Everything for your favorite lefty college student who doesn't know any better than to be collectivist) is not quite as sanguine on the Bernanke pick as Professor Mankiw:
Worst of all, Bernanke, Paulson and Timothy Geithner have continued the disastrous policy of sustaining bondholders and creditors of reckless financial institutions. Capitalism is a profit-and-loss system. The profits encourage risk-taking. The losses encourage prudence. The bondholders and creditors are the single most important check on imprudence. They care only about one thing: solvency. By making them whole, their incentive to restrain recklessness has been greatly weakened. This sows the seeds of the next financial crisis.I feel sorry for Bernanke. In one sense, as the world's greatest living authority on the Great Depression, he is the best man for the job. But because he is the world's greatest living authority on the Great Depression, another catastrophic economic debacle of a similar magnitude would be particularly embarrassing were it to occur on his watch. I believe he has gone too far in the other direction.
Hat-tip: Jimmy P
Roberts -- like brother br -- fails to consider FOMC Chairwoman Maya Angelou, but he makes several good and persuasive points. I'm certainly up for a little backtracking.