BERNANKE’S REAL REPORT CARD
28 August 2009 by Cullen Roche
9 Comments
Courtesy of David Rosenberg:
BERNANKE’S REAL REPORT CARD
• 4 million lost jobs
• 4.6 percentage point surge in the unemployment rate
• 20% decline in the S&P 500
• 30% plunge in house values
• A 3.5% reduction in real GDP per capita
• 11% decline in the trade-weighed dollar
• 109 failed banks (almost matching the total from the prior 13 years combined)… Now that he’s been reappointed, we’ll see what he does for an encore. At least now, post-reappointment, we’ll see what he does for an encore.
Source: Gluskin Sheff
I just reread this. It’s astounding how many people are praising this man for his work….
TPC,
Can you shed some lights on what an conservative saver to do to protect their savings in this massive money-printing, giant treasuries-bubble environment.
Jenny,
Great question. As Rob said earlier, Mr. Bernanke is making it awfully difficult for those conservative investors. A laddered portfolio of international and domestic bonds is likely your best bet.
In my research, I came across LendingClub.com. I was doing a lot of research on it last night and it doesn’t seem to be a scam unlike may other peer-to-peer lending sites. You might want to try that for 10% returns.
TPC -
If you haven’t read this I recommend you reading this and share your thoughts.
The Shell Game – How the Federal Reserve is Monetizing Debt
http://www.chrismartenson.com/print/23583
Thanks Naa, I’ll have a look.
Look, I am going to step in here and defend ole Bernanke and agree with calculated risk that he’s doing all that he knows how to do.
And to be honest, given what he was facing, he’s doing his damndest.
We’re blaming the snp drop on this guy. ARe you kidding?? The world was blowing up and he did what he could.
Now do I believe the FEd should be abolished, for the most part sure. But if we are using the price of assets as an evaluation tool, then what the hell are we doing here. I, for one, believe most equity holders should lose everything based on the fact that their companies are insolvent.
So let’s lay off of Bernanke a bit. If you want to blame him for breaking the US govt’s balance sheet and enslaving the taxpayer, along with that fool obama and those liars and cheaters paulson and geithner, that’s fair game.
But for falling asset prices and high unemployment, unless he really is a wizard, just what the hell does everyone expect him to do. Indeed, these conditions would be necessary preconditions to a sounder economy and business cycle not built on killing the dollar, ridiculous asset bubbles and goofy policies. Unfortunately, we are getting these results in spite of the continued screwed up policies.
I’ll wait a while on BB. Jury is still out.
And another thing, monetizing debt, monetizing debt, monetizing debt, monetizing debt….
How many times does a damn parrot have to repeat the same nonsense.
The money that BB is printing is akin to putting a rain drop in a thimble. While the credit being destroyed can be likened to pouring out a 5 gallon drum.
THE MONEY THAT IS BEING “CREATED” IS INFINITELY SMALL COMPARED TO THE CREDIT (AKA MONEY) THAT IS BEING “DESTROYED” AND “WITHDRAWN” FROM THE ECONOMY.
How are people not getting this still?
iagree a bit with prescient.
the housing bubble would burst anyway and there was probably no way to prevent it.
on longer timeframe i think he made outcome much worse as i rather agree with Mises:
‘There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit (debt) expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit (debt) expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.’