26 May 2010

Bernanke Calls to End the Fed! He Endorses ABCT!!

Economics, Federal Reserve, Foreign Policy 2 Comments

OK not quite, but I am not making up this quotation:

US FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has warned against government interference in monetary-policy setting, saying it contributes to boom-bust cycles and inflation risks.

“Political interference in monetary policy can generate undesirable boom-bust cycles that ultimately lead to both a less stable economy and higher inflation,” Mr Bernanke told a central bankers’ conference in Tokyo today.

Mr Bernanke registered strong concern about political pressure for central banks to increase their public sector bond-buying programs to help soak up government debt – potentially a major issue for the US, euro-zone and Japanese economic managers as they grapple with fiscal consequences of massive public stimulus programs over the past 18 months.

“Abuse by the government of the power to issue money as a means of financing its spending inevitably leads to high inflation and interest rates and a volatile economy,” he told the conference.

The article goes downhill from there.

For an analogy, I think it would be like Ron Paul calling to cut government funding for Halliburton, and then the Halliburton CEO testifying that politicians shouldn’t meddle in such matters, because historically the military-industrial complex has spawned needless wars and countless deaths.

(Thanks to my online business class student, John Morgan, for the link. Speaking of the Mises Academy, have you seen the new course offerings? Get in front of this parade, kids. Everyone’s doing it.)

2 Responses to “Bernanke Calls to End the Fed! He Endorses ABCT!!”

  1. Michael says:
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    Sounds to me like Old Ben is trying to get some quotes on the record before something major happens, so when it all hits the fan he can say “see guys! I warned ya!”

  2. Jeremy says:
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    @Michael

    He better kick it into overdrive if he wants enough quotes like that to outweigh the absurdity he’s been spewing for years. My personal favorite (in mid-late 2005 denying the existence of a housing bubble):

    U.S. house prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years, noted Bernanke, currently chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, in testimony to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. But these increases, he said, “largely reflect strong economic fundamentals,” such as strong growth in jobs, incomes and the number of new households.

    “strong economic fundamentals”?!

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/26/AR2005102602255.html