At 16:56 01/10/2010 +0200, Chris wrote:
Keith wrote:
> I was just being facetious. I don't think there's any doubt that Bernanke
> is smart. But as an academic for the past 20/30 years, a specialist in the
> 1930s Depression, he's been looking at the world with only one set of
> blinkers on (Keynesian). Perhaps he really does think that when governments
> print money whenever they run into trouble it's the most obvious and
> natural thing to do. "There are none so blind as . . . ."
[CR]
Wearing blinkers is a form of incompetence, i.e. lack of intelligence.
So it must be deliberate fraud. Madoff was SEC boss, after all...
He's not a good example at all. Madoff was just a smooth talker and the SEC
was just a ramshackle body with no real intention of investigating any
misdemeanours (even, previously, Madoff's own firm, even when
whistleblowers had supplied evidence) . . .
But a far better example for your point of view, is Greenspan. He wrote
what is probably the most succinct (and accurate) essay yet written on the
gold standard and the danger of the printing of money by governments. It
was actually quoted in one of Ayn Rand's books (which one I've forgotten).
He wrote this as a young academic economist on the make. But he was also
very ambitious in the world outside academe and, when the tide turned
against any resumption of the gold standard, he soon forgot all about
championing it as he proceeded, step by step, through this financial
committee and that before finally arriving at the giddy height of being
chairman of the Fed. (Interestingly, he's never retracted his essay. I
think he must be hedge-betting on his reputation in history.) He's little
more than another Madoff really, except that he's considerably more
talented than that squirt. And at the Fed, of course, in order to help
George W. Bush, Greenspan kept the interest rate down to absurd levels for
so many years that this has been the major cause of the sub-prime housing
market and the subsequent bust. He's now a consultant to PIMCO, the largest
bond trading fund in the world which also manages the world's largest
mutual trust fund on behalf of Allianz. PIMCO is so large that even some
countries tremble when PIMCO makes adverse comments about them (as our
then-Chancellor of the Exchequer did some six months ago when PIMCO
described the UK as sitting on a container-load of dynamite). I don't
think that Greenspan has become an excessively rich man, merely very rich.
His former position and his present role gives him a world-wide status
that, for some men, is worth quite as much as a fortune. (Some billionaires
give fortunes away in order to acquire even more status.)
<<<<
[CR} And as a specialist in the 1930s Depression, of course Bernanke knows
best how to repeat it...
>>>>
As for Bernanke, I don't think he's doing this of his own volition. He's
just incapable of swimming against the tide. I think you can be certain
that he'll be whiter than white while in office. He won't be directly
helping any banks or financial entities directly. Very possibly he doesn't
really fancy a huge amount of money -- his present status will be more than
fulfilling for a while. But one can be certain that when he retires he'll
be offered a few choice directorships and consultancies.
Keith
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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