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Paul Krugman is now so far into outer space with ridiculous economic proposals that even Helicopter Ben Bernanke recognizes Krugman's proposals as "reckless". Bloomberg reports Bernanke Takes On Krugman’s Criticism Ignoring Own Advice

Who ever imagined that Ben Bernanke would become a poster child for the student loan debt problem in America? Recently Bernanke told Congress that his son will graduate from medical school with about $400,000 of student loan debt. For most Americans, such a staggering amount of debt would almost certainly guarantee a lifetime of debt slavery. Unfortunately, Bernanke's son is not alone. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, approximately 167,000 Americans have more than $200,000 of student loan debt. The cost of a college education has increased much more rapidly than the rate of inflation over...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy, pouring cold water on the notion that recent upbeat signs herald a stronger recovery. Bernanke told Congress that unless growth accelerated, the unacceptably high U.S. unemployment rate would not keep dropping. But he stopped short of signaling further Fed bond purchases, dashing the hopes of some traders in financial markets who were betting on more monetary stimulus. "The job market is far from normal," Bernanke said. "Continued improvement ... is likely to require stronger growth in final demand and production." The swift decline in the...

Out on the campaign trail, Fed head Ben Bernanke is an unpopular guy. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have both said they would replace Bernanke, not reappoint him. Rep. Ron Paul would swap the whole Federal Reserve monetary system for a gold-linked dollar, making the yellow metal legal tender. And it was Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, before he dropped out of the race, who said more quantitative easing by the Fed would be "almost treasonous." Republicans in Washington are equally unimpressed by Bernanke. Rep. Paul Ryan recently criticized the Fed for bankrolling our huge budget deficits and thereby accommodating...

In a fascinating exchange between Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican from Wisconsin accused the Fed of eroding peoples’ savings, creating a false sense of security by manipulating the yield curve, and bailing people out by indirectly engaging in fiscal policy. Bernanke hasn’t been comfortable the last couple of times he was forced to testify in Congress. On Thursday, the Fed Chairman was questioned by the House Budget Committee on the state of the economy. After giving his usual description of the economic outlook (inflation has remained moderate, unemployment is high, Fed will do whatever...

Politics: You'd think a Republican debate on the economy would be a perfect time to blast Obama policies as an unmitigated disaster. Yet Obama escaped largely unscathed. Whom do these folks think they're running against? If aliens landed Tuesday night and managed to find the GOP debate on Bloomberg TV, they might think the GOP candidates were running against Ben Bernanke, someone named Dodd-Frank, Obama-Care and China. Newt Gingrich focused his ire, for example, on Bernanke, saying he's "the first person to fire." Michele Bachmann went on about Dodd-Frank, calling it "the jobs and housing destruction act." Rick Santorum said...

Wall Street wanted to hear Ben Bernanke talk about cheap money today. Instead, the Fed chair offered no hint of any more easing of monetary policy, causing a slight decline in the stock market after his speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Bernanke told the audience that Washington needs to start finding ways to create jobs fast in order to repair the economy: Bernanke’s speech at a central banking conference appeared to disappoint some market participants who had hoped the Fed chairman would make a clear case for a further easing of monetary policy. The U.S. dollar strengthened and stocks added...

As I write this, investors around the world are anxiously awaiting Ben Bernanke’s speech at the annual Fed gathering at Jackson Hole, Wyo. They want to know whether Mr. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, will unveil new policies that might lift the U.S. economy out of what is looking more and more like a quasi-permanent state of depressed demand and high unemployment. But I’ll be shocked if Mr. Bernanke proposes anything significant — that is, anything likely to make any serious dent in unemployment or offer any serious boost to growth. Why don’t I expect much from Mr....

Howard Dean: Bush camp will ‘take Perry out’ By Daniel Strauss - 08/17/11 01:59 PM ET Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean predicted that prominent political supporters of former President George W. Bush will throw a critical blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) presidential campaign. “The Bush people don’t fool around, as you know,” Dean said Tuesday night on MSNBC. “You can say a lot of things about Bush’s presidency and his failures as president, but one thing nobody should say [anything] bad about [is] his political team. They know what they’re doing, and they are ruthless, and...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry made a statement about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke calling his actions treacherous and treasonous. Of course, the media is coming to the defense of the chairman. Media Republican analysts such as Karl Rove and Bill Kristol are calling Perry's statement unpresidential and pathetic. Peter Wehner, a former Bush White House aide, wants Perry to apologize. Remember, Bush appointed Bernanke to head the Fed, so it is not surprising that former Bush officials are quickly coming to the defense of their pal Ben. The only person who should be apologizing is Ben Bernanke for pushing...

* Perry threatens Fed chairman, Bachmann also criticizes * Remarks reflect intense political pressure on Fed * White House says threatening Bernanke "not a good idea" (Adds fresh quotes from Bachmann, Obama, economist) WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The White House denounced Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on Tuesday for his threatening remarks toward the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve that represented some of the most inflammatory rhetoric of the 2012 election campaign. Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, the Texas governor said he would consider it "treasonous" if Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke "prints more money between now and the...

Rising prices are no surprise to anyone who has been following the actions of Ben Bernanke’s Fed. Two rounds of “quantitative easing” injected more than $2.3 trillion into bank reserves, and thus to some extent into the economy. The more money chasing products and services, the more those products and services cost.Bernanke’s thinking was that by pumping trillions into the financial system, he could spur lending, investing, and spending via lower interest rates, and thus goose the economy. But the strategy not only hasn’t improved the economy, it has also had two major bad side-effects. Increased inflation is one side-effect,...

People have been speculating about the prospects for QE3 since before QE2 even got off the ground. And with the recovery sputtering and stocks plummeting, the drumbeat has gotten even louder. It helps that Jackson Hole -- the conference where Bernanke announced his plans last year -- is right around the corner. And now the talk begins for real. WSJ's crack Fed Report Jon Hilsenrath interviews some former Fed officials (Donald Kohn, Vincent Reinhart and Brian Madigan) and finds growing support for QE3 IF inflation comes down. And inflation seems to be plummeting everywhere (oil is below $92, all the...

This happened earler: From Brian Rogers of Fator Securities Ron Paul just asked the Bernanke if he thought gold was money. The bernank almost swallows his tongue, stares blankly for a few seconds and then says, “no.” Paul then asks why banks hold gold on their balance sheet? why not diamonds? the bernank says, “tradition, I suppose.” so let me get this straight, banks hold billions of dollars of an asset that pays no interest or dividends on their balance sheet for reasons of "tradition". nothing to do with anything else, just tradition. uh, yea. that must be it. classic!...

Ben Bernanke's testimony at his Humphre-Hawkins testimony is just coming out. The big headline: BERNANKE SAYS FED IS PREPARED TO RESOND IF STIMULUS NEEDED. You can watch the full testimony here.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke couldn't deny the obvious in his speech Tuesday in Atlanta. The economy is bad, with Obama’s “recovery” is setting records for being anemic and the unemployment stuck above 9 percent. Almost 5 million Americans have completely given up looking for work and left the labor force since the "recovery" that started in June 2009. GDP growth the seven quarters into the Obama recovery has averaged an annual rate of only 2.8 percent, a fraction of the 4.6 percent average growth during recoveries since 1970. And this recovery would have been even worse if the Federal...

There was nothing special about the press conference Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke held about the economic projections and reports for the rest of 2011. The Fed is predicting gradual economic growth, a slow rise to inflation, and a small reduction in the unemployment rate.The whole press conference was dull and boring. No one really challenged Bernanke on the Fed's monetary policy. Just because you hold a press conference doesn't mean you are showing transparency. The mainstream media likes to ask the sweet, simple questions instead of the tough, difficult questions. Ron Paul should have been one of the reporters...

You'll see Ben Bernanke in the video below, in his own words, being wrong time after time in the years leading up to the housing bubble bursting, the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, unemployment and the overall state of the economy...

We’ve always wondered why there is so much debate about the rate of inflation. It seems like such a simple thing to track. You go in the store. You buy a box of Wheaties. You write down the price. Next month, you do the same thing. What’s so hard about that? But what if the box is smaller next month? What if the Wheaties are twice as good? What if you can get the same enjoyment from a box of Wheatie-Puffs at half the price? What’s the real rate of inflation? It depends on how you figure it. The Labor...

THE ONLY PART YOU NEED TO SEE: "United States Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke noted that economic indicators did not adequately capture the economy in relation to the Earth’s natural systems. “This is like flying a very large airplane with no map,” he said. Societies had already exceeded planetary boundaries in terms of climate, biodiversity laws and overproduction of nitrogen. A “de-growth” agenda was essential. “We have to get discourse about de-growing the economy going, especially in North America,” he insisted. The sustainable development discourse should be grounded in the Earth Charter, a document developed over a decade of...

The destructive result of the Federal Reserve’s earlier housing and consumer credit bubble became the excuse for embracing a destructive zero interest rate policy which is self-evidently fueling even more destruction. This destruction is namely, the exploitation of middle class savers; the current severe food and energy squeeze on lower income households; the illusion in Washington that Uncle Sam can comfortably manage $14 trillion in debt because the interest carry is close enough to zero for government purposes; and the next round of bursting bubbles building up among the risk asset classes. Moreover, the Fed soldiers on with its serial...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Persistent Federal Reserve critic Representative Ron Paul plans to hold a hearing on the U.S. central bank's emergency loans to the branches of non-U.S. banks, his spokeswoman said on Saturday. "I was surprised and deeply disturbed ... to learn the staggering amount of money that went to foreign banks," Paul said in a statement. "These lending activities provided no benefit to American taxpayers, the American economy, or even directly to American banks," he said.

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury's bank bailout program will move into a profit for the first time on Wednesday with the expected repayment of $7.4 billion in taxpayer funds, Treasury officials said. The transfers to the Troubled Asset Relief Program will push recoveries from banks to $251 billion in repayments of capital, dividends, interest and other income. It invested $245 billion in banks during the financial crisis to help avert a U.S. financial system collapse. The officials did not identify the banks expected to repay funds. But SunTrust Banks Inc and Key Corp said on March 18...

It’s a sign of the times that the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke, testified before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday and the part of the hearing that everyone wanted to know about is what was said by Congressman Ron Paul. He is the chairman of the monetary policy subcommittee that directly oversees the Fed, and he is the one, who, in a poll some months back, was ranked as being neck and neck with President Obama. The reason people are more interested in what he has to say is that it is Dr. Paul who has...

If Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were a soccer mom shopping for corn flakes, he would probably have a different outlook on inflation in the United States of America today. More evidence of runaway inflation surfaced Thursday morning as the US Agriculture Department forecast food prices to rise more than 3% in 2011, which is close to twice as much as the overall inflation rate. Speaking at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack acknowledged the stark reality of ballooning food prices while also aiming to assuage apprehensions about their impact. "We're keeping an eye on this,"...

The questions were put to Ben Bernanke by a polite chap from the National Press Club in Washington, but it was the closest the Federal Reserve chairman had ever come to one. And Bernanke revealed that the central bank is seriously examining whether to follow the Bank of England and the European Central Bank and make a habit of them. In true central banker fashion, the former Princeton University professor didn't let on whether the prospect filled him with joy or horror. At the very least it will give him and Mervyn King something to exchange notes on in any...

<p>Global inflation is far higher than official statistics reveal, Marc Faber, editor and publisher of the “Gloom, Boom and Doom” report told CNBC on Wednesday, with increases in the cost of living amounting to between five and eight percent in the United States and just below that in Europe.</p>

A congressman from Texas, long a dissident critic of the Federal Reserve, is scheduled to become the chairman of a House panel with jurisdiction over the central bank. It promises to be a miserable time for the Fed chairman as he is peppered with hostile questions at oversight hearings and with legislation to force complete audits of Fed operations. So it is now, with Representative Ron Paul about to take over as chairman of the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee. Mr. Paul campaigned against big banks, arguing that concentrated financial power goes hand in hand...

Jeffrey Bell, a two-time campaign adviser to Ronald Reagan, says it’s high time that the United States return to the gold standard, abandoned by President Richard Nixon in 1971. He cites Reagan as a proponent of the monetary regime and squarely blames current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s policies for the ongoing global economic stagnation. Bell is policy director of the American Principles Project. He served as an issues adviser in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns and was the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 1978. Bernanke’s policies — extremely low interest rates...

Reported in the Examiner: By Jim Kouri"Today, the entire Western financial world holds its breath every time the Fed chairman [Ben Bernanke] speaks, so influential are the central bank's decisions on markets, interest rates and the economy in general. Yet the Fed, supposedly created to smooth out business cycles and prevent disruptive economic downswings like the Great Depression, has actually done the opposite." -- Glenn Beck While there is an abundant amount of news coverage regarding the activities of Wikileaks' Julian Assange, with government, military, intelligence and law enforcement officials calling for his punishment for publishing classified documents, if there...

There's nothing funnier to 99% of America than Ben Bernanke's claim that he's not printing money. Especially when, thanks to the Jon Stewart, you see Ben's latest 60 Minutes interview juxtaposed against another 60 Minutes interview when the Chairman said he was printing money -- the difference between now and then being that the Fed was buying corporate assets and now it's buying government bonds.

Here’s a little clip from last night’s 60 minutes where our economic betterer came down from on high to give us a glimse into his brilliance. We’re in good hands, people. Don’t worry. Four or five years till we gain back those 8.5 million jobs the way things are going now? Sounds pretty horrifyingly bad, huh? Well, actually, since unemployment just increased by .2% the way things are going now we wont ever gain those jobs back. But who am I to criticize the Bernake, after all, he went to Harvard and MIT.

<p>Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this Sunday will make his second appearance on 60 Minutes, defending the central bank's controversial $600 billion bond buying program.</p> <p>And he doesn't rule out the possibility that more could be on the way.</p> <p>"He explains why the Fed announced its intention to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities, defending against charges the move will lead to inflation and not ruling out the purchase of more," CBS said Friday.</p>

Republican Congressman Ron Paul may be Julian Assange’s most loyal supporter in Congress. Visiting Fox Business’ Freedom Watch– a program on which Assange has been welcome several times– Rep. Paul went to bat for the Wikileaker in the middle of condemning the secrecy of the Federal Reserve, and made a little request of his own: “every conversation of the last ten years with the Federal Reserve people.” Chop, chop, Assange! Rep. Paul, who is also a regular guest on the program, chatted for some time with the injustices of having a “secret government” like the Federal Reserve with Judge Andrew...

Ben Bernanke is emerging as a high-profile scapegoat as critics ridicule his new "quantitative easing" policy. Charlie Gasparino on why mocking the non-partisan Fed chair is bad for America. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here's how you know Ben Bernanke, the mild-mannered chairman of the Federal Reserve, a scholar of the Great Depression once considered a sage for saving the banking system during the 2008 bank meltdown, has suddenly found himself a target of ridicule lumped in with the financial morons and evildoers like Dick Fuld, Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of the fat cats of Wall Street. Go to YouTube.com, and one of...

Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners, tells Accuracy in Media in an exclusive interview that the Federal Reserve plan to buy $600 billion of U.S. Government securities “borders on the criminal” because the impact will be the devaluation of the dollar by 20 percent and the destruction of $10 trillion of household net worth. “Any potential benefit to GDP and incomes [from the Fed’s action] pales in comparison to the wealth loss (in real terms) and to the damage done to foreign investor confidence,” Ortel says. Ortel, who has been critical of U.S. economic and monetary policy under...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po6HhQ1ZRxE&feature=player_embedded Subscribe Free http://www.inflation.us Must See! End of Liberty http://www.inflation.us/videos

Another Gem from Dave Goldman on the Inner Workings blog at Atol. Enjoy

Ben Bernanke was at Jacksonville University this past Friday discussing the Federal Reserve with college students. It’s actually a very good discussion. He goes through the banking crisis step by step and provides a very clear explanation of the Fed’s role during the crisis. He confirms most of what I have been repeating for weeks now. Most importantly, however, he explains what the Fed is doing going forward. He makes several critical points: * He explains that the Fed “is not printing money”. They are merely swapping treasuries for deposits (sound familiar?). As he mentioned in his op-ed the other...

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). That was the actual military policy of the United States of America and the rest of the World for about 30 years. We had Presidents and Kings and thousands of bureaucrats - the top minds of 2 generations - all getting together on a regular basis and coming up with or buying into insanity like the system [below2]. We look back at it now and say "Gee, what were we thinking" but the whole World went down this path for a while. There is a scene from Doctor Strangelove where Major Kong, the bomb commander, is...

The question being asked all across the world of business news is: Will QE2 be successful? Because this policy is literally economic suicide, the question becomes: Will the Federal Reserve be successful in the assisted economic suicide of the U.S. government? I find this an utterly appalling question -- which highlights the intellectual bankruptcy of government policymakers and the bankers who goad them onward. Quantitative easing is nothing more than a euphemism for printing money out of thin air. Its one-and-only purpose is to destroy the currency being printed. It is pure dilution and absolutely no different than a corporation...

It's a house divided that may not stand. A large proportion of the "fraudclosure" mess may lie at the feet of Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. There is currently a multi-bank nationwide moratorium on foreclosures as the banks wrestle with the fact that there has been widespread use or misuse of "robo-signing," the signing of an affidavit or attesting to the factual correctness of what was purportedly verified without actually having read it. So those who invented small print didn't have the time or chose not to take the time to read it. To further complicate...

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Friday that the central bank was determined to prevent the economy from slipping into a cycle of falling prices, even as he emphasized that he believed growth would continue in the second half of the year, “albeit at a relatively modest pace.” To help sustain the economy, Mr. Bernanke gave his strongest indication yet that the Fed was ready to resume its large purchases of longer-term debt if the economy worsened, a move that would add to the Fed’s already substantial holdings. “We have come a long way,...

Glenn Beck Vault post for Thursday, July 22, 2010 What: The Glenn Beck Vault (GBV) was established in 2010 as the unofficial viewer research arm of the Glenn Beck Program seen on Fox News Channel weekdays at 5pm EST. Armed with the internet and a belief in his country, the GBV aims to help viewers deepen their knowledge of the subjects discussed on the show by providing sources and other materials for review. Full Explanation Here TLDR: I research stuff Glenn says each day and then post. It's fun and I generally end up learning something. Maybe others will too.

Last summer there was a bit of a spitball fight when some critics of Paul Krugman dredged up an old 2002 column of his in which he seemed to call for another housing bubble. Here's what he said: "The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance.To fight this recession the Fed needs more...

....By using its balance sheet to protect an investment bank against failure, the Fed took on the most credit risk in its 96- year history and increased the chance that Americans would be on the hook for billions of dollars as the central bank began insuring Wall Street firms against collapse. The Fed’s secrecy spurred legislation that will require government audits of the Fed bailouts and force the central bank to reveal recipients of emergency credit.

The Federal Reserve, our nation’s central bank, operates in a shroud of secrecy and with absolutely no oversight controls by Congress. Since its founding in 1913, the Fed has been the target of fiscal conservatives and libertarians alike. For years now, and amplified by the recent financial crisis, rising deficits, and surging debt, those same people have begun demanding an audit of the Fed (and even pushing for its elimination). In a surprising move Tuesday, the Senate took a tiny step in that direction by voting 96-0 to do a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve to examine its emergency...

Short synopsis by JH: Professor DeLong abandons the Democrat talking points and dresses down the Obama administration's utter failures in economic and Federal Reserve policies. Surveillance Over the Federal Reserve: On the Sanders Amendment to the Dodd Senate Financial Regulation Bill This afternoon, if I am correctly informed, President Obama is going to come out in opposition to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders's amendment to the Senate financial regulation bill calling for the GAO to regularly audit the Federal Reserve's conduct of monetary policy. My left-wing friends are not surprised but are, once again, disappointed. "Doesn't Obama know who his friends...

Here’s the latest in the question of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the AIG bailout, as we’ve covered here at Big Government before (here and here). Last year, Iraq war vet Kevin Murray brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Ben Bernanke (Murray vs. Geithner, et al) for its acquisition of AIG– a scheme that made the US taxpayer the world’s largest provider of Shariah-compliant insurance products. Lawyers David Yerushalmi and The Thomas More Law Center’s Robert Muise found, in the course of discovery, that that was just the tip of the iceberg. Yerushalmi and...

Warren Buffett rolled up his sleeves on the Fox Business Network in a very candid interview with the channel's Liz Claman, in which he discussed CEOs of failing banks, reconfirming Ben Bernanke, and his Berkshire company.