The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Anti-Bernanke Manifesto

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Today is the day of Ben Bernanke's confirmation hearings on the Hill. Word has it that, despite Obama's approval, most senators "have their fingers in the wind" on Bernanke. In August, when Obama announced that he would not replace Bernanke, I wrote a manifesto of Bernanke's misdeeds and negligence.

That was in August; there's been plenty more to add to the list since then. The argument is very simple, though, and doesn't benefit much from further evidence: we had a recession. It's the Fed's job to prevent recessions, therefore the Fed failed. Bernanke is not some oracle. We have plenty of other brilliant economists, and we could let them take over instead of rewarding failure. Let's not create some sort of cult of technocracy, in which the Fed chairman can do no wrong.

But go back and read the article. It is amazing to see the Fed and Treasury's tag-teamed overreaches of power aggregated on paper.

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

S.L. Toddard| 12.3.09 @ 10:41AM

Mr. Lawler, where do you stand on the audit the fed bill?

Joseph Lawler| 12.3.09 @ 10:56AM

S.L. Toddard:

I do not think that auditing the Fed is in principle a fine idea. However in practice I don't think it would change much, as the Fed's regime-destabilizing actions have had more to do with its role as lender of last resort and regulator than with its role as manager of the money supply.
On the other hand, contra the "audit the Fed" bill's detractors, I think there are far greater threats to the Fed's independence than such a bill.

Joseph Lawler| 12.3.09 @ 10:57AM

Oops, I meant "I DO think that..." in the first sentence.

glevy| 12.3.09 @ 11:27AM

We need to stop depending or worrying about what these figureheads are doing and focus more on the real economy....which happens to be the conditions we all live in and are surrounded by.

Check out my blog for my reasoning behind what caused this mess and what can help us recover!