Letters to the Editor
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Who is this Bernanke fellow?
Bush spend a week grooming his selection. Greenspan called Bush Sr. the most meddling of all the Presidents he served. The second Bush Presidency has really been little different than the first, including the war in Iraq. Given the preference Jr. has for politicizing as many bureaucratic positions as possible, the assumption that Bernanke is really the Under Secretary of Treasury has some merit.
Any Fed chief knows better than to predict economic recession because these statements tend to be self-fulfilling. However when Bernanke denied responsiblity for the dollar in a committee hearing, I thought I heard a fractious public servant struggling in a hamhanded administration. When I heard Paulson chide a Senator for talking down the economy, I thought I heard a nervous boss, worried that his executives would make improper remarks.
If their behavior is consistent, Bernanke has said everything interesting he is going to say (without a subpeona), because the combined powers of the Bush administration are sitting on these hearings like an 800 lb gorilla.
Bernanke is much less independent than Greenspan. Chalk that up to Bush, who has hired and fired more Generals in Iraq than was done in all of WWII. This is the corporate mentality, there are no loose cannons in the corporate boardrooms. Bernanke is really more of a soldier, carrying out the generals orders. Watch the testimony on BSC, they are ignoring Bernanke. When will someone say Heckuva job, Ben? Is he any more responsible for this mess, than Michael Brown was for NOLA?