Bernanke: Wrong Speech, Wrong Nominee

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave a speech this week that made headlines and raised eyebrows: “Lax Oversight Caused the Crisis, Bernanke Says.” Finally, many thought, the Fed Chairman would fess up to his role in the crisis! Alas, 98 percent of the speech is dedicated to justifying what the Fed did right over the last decade, and the “lax oversight” apparently had more to do with other agencies charged with regulating mortgages and underwriting practices, not his own.

Bernanke, who is up for Senate confirmation, still has his head in the sand. From former investment banker Naomi Prins:

“For Bernanke to blame weak regulation for the pyramid of bank-concocted, over-leveraged, high fee-producing assets—real loans mixed with a lot of price-inflating hype—is like a Super Bowl coach blaming coaching in general for the failure of his team to win the Lombardi Trophy.”

The Fed is the country’s lead regulator of the financial system. It pooh-poohed economists raising concerns about the $8 trillion housing bubble until the last moment. At this point, with the wreckage of the collapsed bubble all around us and foreclosures still mounting, we need to hear from Bernanke what the Fed did wrong not what it did right. From Dean Baker of the American Prospect: “While all the regulators share some of the blame, the bulk of the blame for bad regulation lies with the lead regulator, the Fed.” Until Bernanke gives that speech, he should not be approved by the Senate.

Mary Bottari

Mary Bottari is a reporter for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation and is a two-time recipient of the Sidney Prize for public interest journalism from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

Comments

Bernanke supposedly got a Doctorate by studying the Depression. Geez, I think that degree ought to be rescinded. He seems clueless (just like most of Obummer's cabinet) and ought to be FIRED with the rest of them, INCLUDING Obummer.

Stevor says Obama and his entire staff should be fired. As if the economic meltdown was his fault. If the Bush cartel had not been appointed by the right wing SCOTUS or allowed to steal their second "election" with rigged voting machines this never would have happened. Typical tighty righty memory loss.

Let's use some simple logic. If the low interest rate has created the "bubble" why are we still have even lower interest rate? Will there be another bubble? Yes or No. The high interest rate is the cause of the Subprime Woe. The low interest rate stimulated the economy in both times and prevented another Great Depression. Student 1 of Post-Science Most disasters are better than the Great Depression. The constraint of the silver standard caused the Rome Empire to fall, the gold standard contributed to the Great Depression. Post-science asks what crisis might be caused by the constraint of the dollar standard? Student 2 of Post-Science Please visit Post-Science Web Site: http://www.postscience.com

Once again it's good to see you libtards thinking criticaly ...liberal tolerance = tolerate those who agree with me!! search with a open mind if you can and you will find the true culprits to our current dilemna...