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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...