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Wall Street Journal pissed: Bernanke Endorses Obama

 
 
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2008 10:04 am
Maybe Bernanke put the common good of American before his Republican Party. ---BBB

Bernanke Endorses Obama
Wall Street Journal
10/21/08

There was a time when Fed chairmen feared to even seem political.

Ben Bernanke apparently wants four more years as Federal Reserve Chairman. At least that's a reasonable conclusion after Mr. Bernanke all but submitted his job application to Barack Obama yesterday by endorsing the Democratic version of fiscal "stimulus."

While the Fed chief said any stimulus should be "well targeted," even a general endorsement amounts to a political green light. Mr. Bernanke certainly knows that Mr. Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are talking about some $300 billion in new "stimulus" spending, while President Bush and Republicans are resisting. And by saying any help should "limit longer-term effects" on the federal deficit, he had to know he was reinforcing Democratic opposition to permanent tax cuts.

Mr. Bernanke could have begged off -- and would have been wiser to do so -- given how much the Fed has already made itself a political lightning rod with its many Wall Street interventions. He might also have thought twice about endorsing one party's policy preferences a mere two weeks before Election Day given his obligation to preserve the Fed's independence. We can remember when tougher Fed chairmen used to refrain from adjusting interest rates close to an election for fear of seeming to be political; they would never have dreamed of meddling in campaign tax and spending debates.

Perhaps Mr. Bernanke's blunderbuss political intrusion will win him more Democrat friends, and maybe even Mr. Obama's goodwill. To the rest of the world, he has harmed the Fed and made himself less credible.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 764 • Replies: 3
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Cliff Hanger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2008 01:28 pm
@BumbleBeeBoogie,
I don't think the electorate has been sitting on their hands waiting for the Bernanke endorsement. With that siad, it's interesting he'd make his views public. I tend not to think he wants to keep his job, more that he finds McCain not suitable for the position.
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Thomas
 
  2  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2008 01:34 pm
Strange -- when Greenspan argued for spending cuts over tax increases, the Wall Street Journal had no problem with that being political. Now that Bernanke argues for increased spending (which is what "fiscal stimulus" is a code word for), they get miffed.

And by the way, Bernanke hasn't endorsed Obama -- only the fiscal policies he proposed.
hamburger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 22 Oct, 2008 02:17 pm
@Thomas,
thomas wrote :

Quote:
And by the way, Bernanke hasn't endorsed Obama -- only the fiscal policies he proposed.


he'd have difficulty getting one without the other imo .
hbg
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