Comments on: Ben Bernanke's Greatest Challenge

Fed Chairman Discusses Recession, Financial Rescues And Recovery In Wide-Ranging 60 Minutes Interview

[IrqWarVet]

What a load of horse manure...Bernanke and Paulson, and Geithner are three thieves in a pod.
What 60 minutes did not explain, but only touched on, is why is the Fed so secretive? Where are those unaccounted for trillions of dollars they have loaned out and no one knows where it's gone.
I don't believe this guy (Bernanke) for a moment, what I do believe is he (the fed) and Con-gress have off loaded a multi-generational debt that will continue to erode our standard of living...except for those who have profited most from this scam.
If anyone believes what they have done and are doing is legal, constitutional and will save us from ourselves...then I have some prime real estate for sale in Baghdad where you can raise your children safely...Gullibility and ignorance is a choice.

[jzimmerman11]

Why was Bernanke not asked about the impact of the governmental spending he has commented on lateley. That will be the downfall of the economy, not this short term recession. Yes every recession has its core issues, but they pass. Government spending only seems to increase. We are creating our next issue as we speak....

[MePolice]

I think Bernanke knows the truth of the failure, as do many of us that know math & who can see, but he is not allowed to tell the truth. If someone told the truth, we would have to fiqure out how to lock up a major portion of OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS & THEIR CONSTITUENTS IN GUNTANAMO!!!!
Legislation on Elected Officials must be changed ASAP!!! Elected Officials have way too much power behind the scenes and the last 18+ months is the proof.

Wake up American Voters, it is up to you to make this system work. You are responsible for what your elected official have done. They are not responsible the way legislation reads now!!!

[profitleads]

Unfortunately, Benochio's education, as to the genuine causes of the great depression, is woefully inadequate and the Fed's response to these bursting balloons (created by Greenspan and blown ever larger by Benochio) will sink what remains of the U.S. economy.

[SiminskiL]

There is much talk about the United States Treasury ?nationalizing the banks?. I find that ironic since in effect the Treasury has already been ?privatized? by the banks. When do you last remember calling up the Federal Reserve and saying, ?Send me over a couple of billion so I payoff my gambling debts to my cronies and continue my other bad habits.?;? unless you owned the place.

I think we forget that money is the medium of exchange, not value itself. Value is created wealth through effort, ingenuity, and investment in tools to make the other two more efficient. If we produce less we have less. If we produce nothing we have nothing, even if we exchange it one time or 100.

It is not about banks. It is not about money. It is not about jobs. It is about producing real value! Any plan that stimulates the first three without creating value is corruption. The only thing unique about the recent congressional action is the level of corruption.

[inesse]

My question is why only one man on his own has power to decide all our future if there are chech and balances! To tuch FED reserve is very big responsibility before american people.

[joenobody66]

Bernankes simple analogy confirmed what a lot of us have always said...the Fed Gov would rather throw money into a burning building (you can also use "a sinking boat") than use it to help & protect those doing things the right way!
Did he really use the logic that we must put out the fire 1st so we can "then" create codes, & rules to prevent this from happening again!! Are you kidding me? are you saying this wasnt already in place before we allowed America to put their retirements into the market.
The laws were in place - let um burn, then go after them legally & then go after all the Gov officials & agency that allowed this to happen on their watch. Oh thats right they were busy saving us from Martha Stewart!!!
You want us to reinvest in market, to believe in the new administration, then give us accountability to those that do wrong! ....really thats all it takes-for this nobody.
I say let um burn because I believe America is still strong enough to pick itself up and overcome this - If we just buy time by throwing money at this problem - at those who caused/allowed this; then it will still fail, only we may not be able to overcome it at this later date.

[jackwaddington]

This recession is NOT going to recover. Capitalism is in the process of collapse and we are using the very people that created it (economist) to rescue it, which is tantamount to arsonists running the fire department. We need to let the whole thing collapse, which will be very scary and disturbing cause we are unprepared to live without money. It will be chaotic for a while and then we humans will settle on a way to live without money ... hence without law ... and hence without government. It seems more terrible looking out but once out of this economic box we'll be very surprised we never thought of it before. Actually, some did some 400 years ago.;

[bethanykid]

Is the FED Chairman trying to rescue Miss Kitty's Parlor &Saloon? He did say Wall Street made "bad bets". I thought a sound financial system is about loans and investments. Evidently, the FED is the world's sole casino that refunds bad gamblers. Or, America's banks have become casinos after deregulation.

[Zawebo]

60 minutes has it backwards. It was the bank failures that caused the currency contraction that brought on the Great Depression. The argument that the Fed could have prevented these bank failures comes from Friedman and Schwartz: "The detailed story of every banking crisis in our history shows how much depends on the presence of one or more outstanding individuals willing to assume responsibility and leadership. It was a defect of the financial system that it was susceptible to crisis resolvable only with such leadership. The existence of such a financial system is, of course, the ultimate explanation for the financial collapse...?This quote is from A Plan For America (Pg. 252). Here is another quote from A Plan For America: ?Friedman and Schwartz are likely correct that the system could have been held in check with a ?strongman? at the helm. But we should also consider the weakness of a system that requires a ?strongman? to keep it from fostering such disaster onto the nation. This was the time that Germany chose Adolf Hitler, a ?strongman?, to keep them from disaster? (Pg. 253). We can only wonder why Bernanke is so intent on saving this defective system that has caused so much national distress and at such a price.