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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: US Senator Bernie Sanders Michael Briggs or Will Wiquist (202) 224-5141 |
Four Reasons Why Democrats Should Oppose the Bernanke Reappointment
WASHINGTON - January 25 - In a letter to Senate colleagues, Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) today offered four reasons why Democrats should oppose the
reappointment of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Here is the
letter:
Dear Democratic Colleague:
The American people today are suffering through the worst economy since the Great Depression with 17.3 percent of the American workforce either unemployed or underemployed. Millions more have lost their homes, their savings, their health care and their pensions. At a time like this let me provide four reasons why Ben Bernanke should not be confirmed as chairman of the Fed.
1) Not only was Mr. Bernanke first nominated to the Fed by President George W. Bush, but he served in the Bush administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. Let us never forget that the Bush years, even before the collapse of Wall Street, were an economic disaster for the average American. Mr. Bernanke, who was recently endorsed for reappointment by Alan Greenspan, played a major role in the deregulatory efforts that enabled major financial institutions to engage in reckless and illegal behavior. The American people gave us the responsibility to bring about change, not the maintenance of the status quo. Why, at this difficult moment in American history, should we reappoint Wall Street's candidate as chairman of the Fed?
2) One of the main functions of the Fed is to maintain the safety and soundness of our financial system. No one can deny that Mr. Bernanke, as chairman of the Fed, was asleep at the wheel while Wall Street became the largest gambling casino in the history of the world and hurtled into insolvency - at enormous cost to our country. Not since the Great Depression has our financial system been as unsafe, unsound and unstable than under Ben Bernanke's tenure as chairman of the Fed. Why should Mr. Bernanke be rewarded with reappointment after he failed so terribly to do his job?
3) As part of the bailout, the Fed lent out trillions of dollars in virtually zero-interest loans to large financial institutions. Mr. Bernanke has consistently refused to provide the transparency needed so that the American people can learn which banks received those loans and the terms that were provided to them. In addition, the Fed continues to keep secret a number of documents related to its role in the AIG bailout. Why should this type of secrecy be tolerated?
4) The Fed, today, has the tools to significantly improve our economy and a mandate to conduct monetary policy in support of full employment. It has the authority to protect consumers by lowering the outrageously high interest rates that millions are paying. It has the authority to provide low-interest loans to credit-worthy small and medium size business that are in desperate need of that capital which will enable them to create the new jobs our economy needs. It has the authority to require bailed out banks to modify home loans to allow homeowners to stay in their homes. It has the authority to begin breaking up those huge financial institutions that, in a number of cases, are even bigger today than they were when we bailed them out because they were "too big to fail."
Instead of confirming one of the key architects of George Bush's economic agenda, a new nominee could transform the Fed into a central bank committed to the needs of the middle class of this country rather than powerful Wall Street executives responsible for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
To see a copy of the letter, click here.
Comments
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5 Comments so far
Show AllAs usual, Sanders speaks for the people, what is best for the people, what is best for the country. As usual, our corporate owned representatives and senators will ignore him.
Keep in mind that Bernie could have come up with more than 4 reasons, for example: Bernanke's August 2007 interest rate cuts that flooded the speculation industry with cheap money that resulted in them spiking up the retail cost of commodities (primarily food) and energy (primarily gasoline and diesel). Those price spikes hastened and exacerbated the severity of the 2008 economic meltdown, contradicting Obama and Congress' claims that Bernanke softened the impact of the meltdown.
Subject : Bernanke and Financial Crisis
Dear Senator Sanders,
(An Open Letter, January 22, 2010; Please Feel Free To Distribute)
Post-Science Institute has successfully predicted both the Savings and Loan Crisis and the Subprime Woe with its patented solution of value. It would like to support the reappointment, and to attest to the openness and the honesty, of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke with the following Abstract of its comment on his recent Speech on January 3, 2010 at the American Economic Association meeting.
Comment on AEA Speech of Fed Chairman Bernanke on January 3, 2010 on “Monetary Policy and the Housing Bubble”
Post-Science Institute
http://www.postscience.com/bernanke.pdf
postscience@ymail.com
Abstract
“Post-Science Institute believes that the “pre-scientific” Taylor rule for setting the interest rate should be replaced by the logical economic condition:
Rate of Return > Interest Rate > Inflation Rate
which simply says that investors would only borrow money at low interest rate to invest in investments with high rates of return, and that lenders would only lend at interest rate above the inflation rate. For example, the “Housing Bubble” was created when the rise in the fed fund rate caused the rate of return of housing investments to drop below the mortgage interest rate, which was rising. Furthermore, the vague concept of “Bubble” should be replaced by the quantitative concept of “over-valuation,” which is defined as an economic condition where the market price is over the price calculated based on the expected future cash flows. As admitted by Chairman Bernanke “…interest rate increases in 2003 or 2004 sufficient to constrain the bubble could have seriously weakened the economy..,” where “2003 or 2004” could be a typo error and should be replaced by “2005 and 2006”, it was the raising of the fed fund rate during 2005 and 2006, not the period of low fed fund rate during 2003 and 2004, that caused the over-valuation, as calculated by Post-Science Institute with its solution of value disclosed in the patent “Quantitative Supply and Demand Model Based on Infinite Spreadsheet” (Pat. No. 6,078,901). The low interest rate in 2003 and 2004 was needed, as it is needed now in 2009, 2010, and beyond, to stimulate the low-tech housing and auto industries, in the absence of major high-tech innovations, in the aftermath of the crashing of the explosive Internet innovation in 2000 by the former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who followed the Taylor rule, not Chairman Bernanke. Future financial crises and over-valuations can be and should be preventable by the correct solution of value.”
My support of Bernanke is based on my opinion that nothing is worse than another Great Depression, from which Bernanke has saved the US and the world economy based on the spirit of the late Milton Friedman. Friedman recommended “dropping money from a helicopter” to combat the threat of deflation by increasing the money supply. Bernanke gave money to businesses, so that the US taxpayer lost just $100 billion, so far, instead of $1 trillion, had the money being used to relief the troubled assets or dropped from a helicoptor.
Furthermore, the constraint of the silver standard caused the Rome Empire to fall, the gold standard contributed to the Great Depression. Post-Science Institute asks what crisis might be caused by the constraint of the dollar standard or the artificial constraint of the US national debt? Again, I must stress that “Nothing Is Worse Than Another Great Depression.” In conclusion, I believe neither that any economist can do a better job than Bernanke, nor that anyone, except possibly Ron Paul, is more open or more honest than Bernanke, even though economists are all equally ignorant of how to predict, prevent, and cure the chronicle financial crises.
In order to introduce the above knowledge for dealing with future financial crises, Post-Science Institute is in the process of proposing to the National Science Foundation the establishment of a Post-Science Division in NSF, as described in the following Introduction:
Pre-Proposal
Establishment of Post-Science Division in National Science Foundation
By
Post-Science Institute
January 2010
Introduction
In the past millennium, science has overtaken religion as the dominant culture of the human civilization. Science has gone through the stages of discovery, research, development, marketing, and application. At the turn of the second millennium, marketing and application of science occupy the center stage of scientific activities. Science has matured into the new religion of science, a religion that is value-absent and unconcern about the completely automated foundation of life, with nearly 100% of the educated population believing in it, mostly, without understanding. The current global crisis is urgently in need of a rigorous solution of value.
Science has reached diminishing return. Many visionary thinkers start to speculate on post-science knowledge based on problems outside the domain and the capability of science.
The current application of science is not post-science. Knowledge beyond science or post-science must also start with discovery, research, and development and end with marketing and application. The National Science Foundation provides the ideal setting to nurture post-science.
For the past forty years, Post-Science Institute has made discoveries in the theory of value and in the possibility of complete automation. Value is the foundation of social science, and complete automation is the foundation of computer and life sciences. Post-Science Institute also fills the missing gap in Newtonian Mechanics by discovering the solution of touch, collision without bounce. Robots for replacing all human physical labor must possess the ability of touch.
These discoveries should give the proposed Post-Science Division at the National Science Foundation some justification for its existence and, more importantly, a good and solid start. Due to the revolutionary nature of these discoveries, the solution of value and software have been rigorously examined by the US Patent Office resulting in the issuance of two patents, “Quantitative Supply And Demand Model Based On Infinite Spreadsheet” (Pat. No. 6,078,901) and “Completely Automated And Self-generating Software System” (Pat. No. 5,485,601).
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Post-Science Institute
http://www.postscience.com
but Obama is "claimed" the smartest President of all time! How could he be wrong?
1. Get rid of Bernanke.
2. Get rid of the Fed.
3. Read "Monster of Jekyll Island."