• Tag Archives Bernake

  • FED CHAIR BERNANKE TO PRINCETON GRADS: MERITOCRACY DOESN’T ‘PASS ETHICAL MUSTER’

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Speaking at the Princeton University graduation in June, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spelled out his political philosophy: from each according to his luck, to each according to his need.

    He explained that meritocracies were inherently unfair, and that those who were the luckiest needed to give back to society to make the concept of meritocracy work ethically.

    “A meritocracy,” Bernanke said, “is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate — these are the folks who reap the largest rewards.”

    Full article: http://www.breitbart … rinceton-meritocracy


    📂This entry was posted in News and Politics 📎and tagged

  • Bernanke Wields New Tools to Reduce Unemployment Rate

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Chairman Ben S. Bernanke moved the Federal Reserve further into uncharted policy territory in combating joblessness by tying the bank’s interest-rate outlook to unemployment and inflation, while committing to an even faster expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet.

    The actions on the eve of the Fed’s centenary year underscore Bernanke’s hallmark commitment to experimentation and forceful action, derived in part from his research showing too little monetary stimulus produced large economic costs for the U.S. in the 1930s and for Japan in the 1990s. He called the current state of the labor market, with unemployment at 7.7 percent, “an enormous waste of human and economic potential” and said the benefits of more bond buying outweigh the potential risks.

    “Bernanke is pulling out all the stops to kick this economy back into a higher gear,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “They are buying everything in sight — Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities — and will keep rates low until everyone who wants a job has one.”

    Bonds fell yesterday on the prospect of higher inflation after policy makers boosted their main stimulus tool by adding $45 billion of monthly Treasury purchases to an existing program to buy $40 billion in mortgage debt a month. That decision puts the Fed’s $2.86 trillion balance sheet on track to reach almost $4 trillion by the end of next year.

    The yield on the 10-year note was little changed today, and traded at 1.69 percent at 9:13 a.m. in London. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond rose one basis point to 2.896 percent.

    Full article: http://www.bloomberg … employment-rate.html


    📂This entry was posted in News and Politics 📎and tagged

  • Bernanke to Congress: We’re Much Closer to Total Destruction Than You Think

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Official Congressional budget estimates understate the peril of rising debt, Fed chair Ben Bernanke told the Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today.

    Warning that our nation’s fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don’t confront them, they’ll find themselves confronted by them.

    From Bernanke’s prepared remarks:

    By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit. One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will come as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis.

    Bernanke explained that the Congressional Budget Office’s calculations miss an important reality. As the government’s debt and deficits rise, the economy will slow down—an effect not taken into account by the CBO. So, for instance, when the CBO says that federal spending for health-care programs will roughly double as a percentage of GDP in the next 25 years, it is probably being too optimistic. If debt keeps, rising, GDP will be much lower than the CBO estimates—which will mean that health care spending will be a much larger percentage of the overall economy.

    Full article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41491193/


    📂This entry was posted in News and Politics 📎and tagged