2nd Year Fed Chairman is Always a Rough Year

January 17, 2008 in Business, Economics, News, Politics, life, philosophy, thoughts
Tags: bernanke, Business, central bank, china, Economics, economy, fear, FED, federal government, federal reserve, federal reserve policy, fiscal policy, houses, inflation, jobs, labor law, leadership, monetary policy, nation, philosophy, political winds, Politics, rookie, thoughts, unemployment, US economy

Bernanke’s rookie year was a bit rough for the nation. His second year hasn’t had much success either. However, it appears that he is coming out of the textbook world of economics and into the real world. Yes, the world where living, breathing humans with names actually lose their jobs and houses rather than his previous world where there is a % increase in unemployment.

My favorite quote from Bernanke was the following:

To be useful, a fiscal stimulus package should be implemented quickly and structured so that its effects on aggregate spending are felt as much as possible within the next 12 months or so.

Clearly, this is in stark contrast to his molasses monetary policy, which consists of waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Essentially paralyzed by inflationary fears.

What is interesting about Bernanke’s leadership in the FED is that it puts much more control of the economy into the hands of the Federal government as opposed to our central bank. This is a scary notion. Political winds change, shift, dwindle in a relatively short period. The result is much more sporadic economic conditions and less economic stability. If not offset by consistent Federal Reserve Policy, the US Economy will be severely upset by fiscal policy.

Bernanke has recently indicated that the FED is looking to take aggressive action, indicating to many that a half point cut in interest rates should be expected at the end of this month. Provided that the FED does indeed shift from the monetary drip policy to at least a trickle as indicated, the US economy might be able to shed off some of the damage we can anticipate from the recent change in China’s labor law.