Bernanke "Has Been a Failure"
In yesterday’s confirmation hearing for his second four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke received a thorough tongue-lashing from Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY). Here are a few highlights from the transcript as well as the video…
* “…you put the printing presses into overdrive to fund the government’s spending and hand out cheap money to your masters on Wall Street, which they use to rake in record profits while ordinary Americans and small businesses can’t even get loans for their everyday needs.”
* “…you have decided that just about every large bank, investment bank, insurance company, and even some industrial companies are too big to fail. Rather than making management, shareholders, and debt holders feel the consequences of their risk-taking, you bailed them out. In short, you are the definition of moral hazard.”
* “Because you bowed to pressure from the banks and refused to resolve them or force them to clean up their balance sheets and clean out the management, you have created zombie banks that are only enriching their traders and executives. You are repeating the mistakes of Japan in the 1990s on a much larger scale, while sowing the seeds for the next bubble.”
* “From monetary policy to regulation, consumer protection, transparency, and independence, your time as Fed Chairman has been a failure.”
Footage of the Senate Banking Committee hearing is below.
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