Maggie's Farm

ROOKIE MISTAKE

``It is a team that is new to the challenge, but it is a pretty smart group,'' said Harris. Bernanke ``really studied for the job. He is familiar with the history of the Fed, the policy errors, and he is a Great Depression buff .''

``Sometimes, the dynamics change very, very quickly,''


I had a political science professor who had his PhD from Harvard. He wanted me to go. I couldn't afford it.
Once in a conversation with him he said that if you took all the economists on Earth and lined them up end to end they couldn't reach a conclusion.

And so it goes with the "Rookie" PhD from Princeton who, as the opening paragraph states, "really studied for the job"

All I've heard from the FED for the past decade plus is INFLATION,INFLATION,INFLATION..... and I've always wondered where they stood on GROWTH.

Greenspan answered that question with his "irrational exuberance" speech December 5, 1996 ...within months venture capital for new markets was drying up. Finally it was calcine and disappeared. The market took a dive and trillions were lost. Then after the carnage was over he started lowing rates again to pump up the jam...in the end some money market funds couldn't guarantee you a dollar for dollar exchange. Some say he even cost Bush H.W. the election by sitting on his hands as the econoomy went south

I understand the corrosive effects of inflation , but when it's running at 2-3% for years, and core inflation even lower I'd like to see some discussion on the growth side ...the FED thinks 5% growth is just dandy...I don't.

``Sometimes, the dynamics change very, very quickly,''
How horribly lame is that. It's made as if the FED brains just discovered that.

But the one remark that should scare the hell out of us was this one.

he is a Great Depression buff

That one needs dilation.

Roger that BD ..