the fed hires the best economists.
thats questionable.
there are a lot economists/bankers who currently work for the fed who have previous connections to private banking, which in itself is not a bad thing because that kind of experience can be valuable in the position. but in our current climate with corporate control over the government at an all time high, and personnel movement between the public and private sector one of the big driving forces of that, it makes me skeptical of hiring economists who are fresh off a gig as a president of a private bank because it makes me question whether there will be a conflict of interest. and i think im justified in that question because the BEHAVIOR of the Fed leads me to believe they are dictating policy in the best interest of the banks and corps and NOT in the interest of ALL people.
I would argue that a lot of what ben bernanke has done is in the interest of main street, not wall street. These interest rates should encourage people and businesses to borrow and spend. There's not much else he can do. Congress and Obama not being able to agree on anything is harming the economy, not bernanke.
i agree that fiscal policy makers also play a huge role in this fiasco. but i totally disagree with the bold. bernake using the mechanisms of the fed to funnel god knows how much money to god knows who is not benefitting main street.
did you see the video where some congressman was pressing him about who were the specific recipients of the 700B bailout cash and bernake wouldnt answer him straight. greenspan used to do the same thing, put on a smoke and mirror show with his "Fed Speak" to get politicians off his back.
but thats our money brother, taxpayer money. and we hire congress to track our taxpayer money. and this dude bernake, in violation of Fed statues mind you, does not directly answer questions about who we gave that bailout money to? cmon sun, thats definitely not in our best interest.
edit: economics is ridiculous, in no other applied math or science do you have the leading figures of the world taking completely opposite views.
because human corruption corrupts the scientific aspect. you cant account for human greed in a theoretical model.
edit 2: I got around to watching the video I agree we could stop some spending but the majority of our spending goes to military and intelligence. Does a politician have the balls to cut the military? no they don't and cutting government spending is not going to help the economy.
if our politicians dont serve us, then we need new politicians.
to his other point we have a solid currency. other countries use our currency, their central banks hoard US dollars.
be serious
we have a "good currency" compared to other currencies because a lot of other currencies are shytty. but dont act for one second like the fundamentals of the dollar are sound and we are not in a slow, downward spiral to economic mediocrity.
