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Bernanke: deep spending cuts could derail recovery ('self-inflicted wound' looms)
Yahoo ^ | 7/14/11 | Mark Felsenthal and Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - Reuters)

Posted on 07/14/2011 10:03:10 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress on Thursday that overzealous cuts to government spending could derail an already fragile recovery and said a U.S. debt default could wreak financial havoc.

"I only ask ... as Congress looks at the timing and composition of its changes to the budget, that it does take into account that in the very near term the recovery is still rather fragile, and that sharp and excessive cuts in the very short term would be potentially damaging to that recovery," Bernanke told members of the Senate Banking Committee.

Congress and the White House are stalemated in talks on cutting the budget deficit, with Republicans seeking $2.4 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for agreeing to raise the $14.3 U.S. government borrowing limit. The U.S. Treasury has said it will run out of money after August 2 to pay all of the country's bills if the a deal is not reached to raise the debt ceiling.

On the second day of delivering the Fed's semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, Bernanke renewed his warning that a U.S. debt default would be devastating for the U.S. and global economies.

"It would be a calamitous outcome," Bernanke said. "It would create a very severe financial shock that would have effects not only on the U.S. economy but the global economy."

Failure to raise the debt limit in time would constitute a "self-inflicted wound" to the economy, he added.

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bernanke; derail; recovery; spendingcuts
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To: NormsRevenge
Bernanke's the embodiment of the quote, "When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

A government banker, whose solution for every problem is . . . < drumroll>

THROW MONEY AT IT. < cymbal crash>

He is doing little more than perpetuating the chicken-little-in-chief's "sky is falling" hyperventilation.

His next pronouncement will be something about old people eating cat food and his next tee time, if he follows 0's lead.

41 posted on 07/14/2011 10:44:09 AM PDT by Quiller (When you're fighting to survive, there is no "try" -- there is only do, or do not.)
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To: NormsRevenge

When would be a good time Ben? Or do you think we can keep doing this forever?


42 posted on 07/14/2011 10:46:22 AM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA
Ben about a month ago said he has tried everything he knows and nothing it working.

Bennie we tried a 800 Billion Stimulus and that didn't work.

Ben is the definition of insanity do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

43 posted on 07/14/2011 10:51:42 AM PDT by scooby321
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To: NormsRevenge
How does one go about derailing a train wreck?

Derail over 400,000 unemployment claims per week?

Derail less than 20,000 new jobs per month?

Derail 9.2% (bogus number I know) unemployment and actual unemployment of over 17%?

Derail housing markets that have houses going for 1/3 of their 2005 value?

Need to take on more debt to show we can handle our national debt?

If we refuse to take on more debt it means we can't handle our debt?

What fricking planet do these fools live on?

44 posted on 07/14/2011 11:02:59 AM PDT by N. Theknow (I am a Carnivore Conservative - No peas for me.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Repeal obummercare, eliminate the EPA, TSA, and several other organizations and it will fix our debt.


45 posted on 07/14/2011 11:08:18 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (zero hates Texas and we hate him back. He ain't my president either.)
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To: NormsRevenge

This imbecile will never get another term.


46 posted on 07/14/2011 11:11:15 AM PDT by grumpygresh (Democrats delenda est)
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To: NormsRevenge

This time it is, in part, Bush’s fault. He appointed Bernanke. Why George, why?


47 posted on 07/14/2011 11:16:00 AM PDT by Signalman
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To: frogjerk

LOL!


48 posted on 07/14/2011 11:17:49 AM PDT by lonevoice (Life is short. Make fun of it.)
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To: Qbert
You beat me to it with those great posts showing Ben's razor sharp forecasting skills.

He's our best current example of "He whose bread I eat is the song I sing"

49 posted on 07/14/2011 11:19:07 AM PDT by Notary Sojac (I have not heard a single Michele or Cain backer threaten to stay home if Palin is nominated.)
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To: NormsRevenge

There were those one FR who told me in 2007 that any raise in interest rates would shut down most businesses.

I said “If you are depending on loaned money to stay afloat, you are already in deep trouble,” and got flamed out of the thread. Turns out I was right.

I will say this to Ben. If the only thing keeping our economy going the way it is right now is credit, we are screwed no matter way.


50 posted on 07/14/2011 11:23:32 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Soooooooooooo, cutting costs in now a bad thing? Am I still living in the USA or has my country changed so much that willingness to spend less is now the “wrong thing to do?”


51 posted on 07/14/2011 11:48:34 AM PDT by ducttape45
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To: NormsRevenge

Everyone talks about GDP = C + I + G + Net Exports. They scream that if G (government spending) goes down that GDP will drop. But I say, if G were lower, there’d be a lot more investment, and a lot more productive investment than money spent by the government.

We also know that over the past few years, additional credit has yielded less that a dollar of GDP for each dollar borrowed. It’s time to stop running G on tomorrow’s money (and to lower it’s share of today’s income, too).


52 posted on 07/14/2011 12:13:32 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Pearls Before Swine

DING DING DING.

WAY too much of our GDP ‘gain’ over the past couple of decades comes from government spending of borrowed money, not real increases in wealth or production.

Obeyme didn’t start it, but he - to borrow his favorite car wreck metaphor - aimed it toward a cliff, put a brick on the accelerator and jumped out.

There’s a hundred alphabet soup agencies that could go out of business tonight and the only visible sign outside of DC would be that traffic on I-270 and 495 would clear up and the Tysons Nieman Marcus would close.


53 posted on 07/14/2011 12:29:58 PM PDT by SargeK
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To: NormsRevenge
Bernanke: deep spending cuts could derail recovery

What recovery? The train tracks are empty there is no recovery train to derail. We derailed when the marxist was elected in 2008.

Step One: Put economic train back on track by first removing the marxist from the engine car and putting him in the caboose.

54 posted on 07/14/2011 12:31:33 PM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: NormsRevenge
Gee, Ben. That's not what Obama's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform said. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles said we need to:

- Sharply reduce tax rates, abolish the AMT, and cut backdoor spending in the tax code.

- Cap revenue at 21% of GDP and get spending below 22% and eventually to 21%.

55 posted on 07/14/2011 12:39:31 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. *4192*)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I am beginning to wonder into whose pocket our regular taxes going into each month. Many conservatives say(Michelle Bachmann a tax lawyer says is one) that there is more than enough money coming into the government regularly each month in taxes to cover any fault on our debts plus enough to cover Soc Sec and Medicare etc. However, the Rats keep talking that there is no tax money available. Well, if not, where is it going? Someone should look into this.


56 posted on 07/14/2011 12:53:05 PM PDT by Maryhere ("HE comes to rule the earth")
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To: NormsRevenge
Photobucket
57 posted on 07/14/2011 1:01:10 PM PDT by Candor7 (Obama fascist info..http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: NormsRevenge

There is still lots of “stimulus” money that is unspent. This whole thing is a hoax and a charade by the Left. Bernanke may or may not be part of that but the way the MSM reports his words will be.

Hang in there House Republicans. Don’t give in.

I am not sure what Mitch McConnell recommended but If Harry Reed liked it, I don’t.


58 posted on 07/14/2011 2:22:58 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (I retain the right to be inconsistent, contradictory and even flat-out wrong!)
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To: NormsRevenge
bernanke was quoted as saying, "failing to raise the debt ceiling is like going on a spending spree with your credit cards and then refusing to make the payments." hunh, interesting analogy, Ben. Take the sh!t you bought back. That's what your daddy would have made you do. He wouldn't have made you borrow more, you crack-smoking, kool-aid-drinking shill.

bernanke’s solution: get a bigger credit card.


59 posted on 07/14/2011 2:30:19 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand ("America will cease to be great when America ceases to be good." -- Welcome to deToqueville.)
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To: TSgt

Certainly not! If we balance the budget now, all will be well. It’s that simple.


60 posted on 07/14/2011 2:51:59 PM PDT by Hoodat (Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. - (Rom 8:37))
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