SHOULD BERNANKE BE RECONFIRMED?
I was surpsrised to see the WSJ poll as heavily against Bernanke as it is. The online poll is currently against Bernanke to the tune of 58% no’s to 42% yes’s:
It’s amazing that we’re evening debating this at this point, but it looks like there is a fairly good chance Bernanke won’t get a shot at another term. As regular readers know, I think Bernanke whiffed on the housing crisis and is only taking credit after the house burned down. He is, quite literally, the guy who watched your house burn down then dropped a helicopter full of water on it after the fact and now is attempting to take credit for saving your property. I’m sorry, but how can people be so delusional about this? Bernanke, this supposed expert on the Great Depression, saw none of this coming and is now being paraded around as some sort of hero despite the fact that the economy is still in tatters?
The only thing Bernanke accomplished was further dollar destruction, increased government fiscal issues, furthering the problem of too big to fail and handing the banks trillions of dollars they didn’t deserve. Why should he be rewarded with anything? The failure of a strong economic rebound is not only on Obama, in my opinion. It is primarily on his economic advisers – Geithner and Bernanke. Yes, the equity markets have rebounded, but the real economy remains weak and the structural problems that caused the crisis all remain. All he has accomplished is a successful (re)implementation of the policies Greenspan admitted were a failure. He has repeated the policy failures of the past while copying Japan and ignoring Sweden.
The Congress would be wise to listen to the electorate. I believe Obama deserves his own Chairman. It’s time to ignore the equity market response and begin the road to real recovery. Removing Bernanke is a good first step.
