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Ben Bernanke stays on point, promising continued QE even after the economy shows improvement. He...

  • Tuesday, November 20, 2012, 12:29 PM ET
    Ben Bernanke stays on point, promising continued QE even after the economy shows improvement. He says fiscal cliff worries are already posing a drag on U.S. growth, but a long-term deal could make "the new year a very good one for the American economy." Do we detect an optimistic turn in attitude from the chairman?
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This news story has 28 comments:

  • In a word: hubris.
    20 Nov 2012, 12:31 PM Reply Like
  • Translation: I promise you a Santa rally just like last year's, as long as congress can agree to something.
    20 Nov 2012, 12:47 PM Reply Like
  • If what you do, doesn't work, do MORE of it. Isn't that roughly how Einstein defined INSANITY?

    France gets her credit downgraded; America is next. How does MORE DEBT fix the problem of too much debt? (Ben, it is not now, nor has it ever been, a credit crisis. We gave our selves WAY TOO MUCH CREDIT (which is a play on MEKhoury's comment above about HUBRIS) -- and now we have WAY TOO MUCH (Karmic) DEBT. And, of course, this terrifies Ben.
    20 Nov 2012, 12:57 PM Reply Like
  • Always remember lads: "pessimists don't make money on Wall Street". Nor do traders or investors who decide to be pessimistic.
    20 Nov 2012, 01:12 PM Reply Like
  • neither do they lose money
    20 Nov 2012, 05:06 PM Reply Like
  • Jay, Optimism is successful 50% of the time only. Night always follows Day.
    21 Nov 2012, 03:09 AM Reply Like
  • Fed = spreading the illusion of hope with more "upbeat" scenario.

    I'm voting on 1.5% or LESS GDP growth. So, what's going to be so good about that for 2013. We'll still have $1T deficits - no matter what Congress does with debt ceiling or taxes or spending. We in for recession or close to recession (almost no growth).

    Bernanke doesn't have any ammo.....
    20 Nov 2012, 01:24 PM Reply Like
  • WM

    Never left the last recession. Worried this might be the start of a Depression. Forget the way the define it. To me all these people out of work, 49 million on food stamps, and record sales of guns for some manufacturers..

    Practicing my shooting, as well as the wife!
    21 Nov 2012, 12:33 AM Reply Like
  • Exactly. Night-Cycles can be defined as SERIAL RECESSIONS interrupted briefly by failed attempts at growth. Day-Cyles can be defined as serial expansion interrupted briefly by failled attempts to deflate.

    Night-Cycle Deflation from 2001-2019. Day-Cycle Inflation from (1983-2001) 2019-2037.
    21 Nov 2012, 03:11 AM Reply Like
  • 2013 could be a very good year????That's the headline????
    20 Nov 2012, 01:26 PM Reply Like
  • I listened to his speech - start to finish. That is sure not my take away on his message.

    Traders didn't seem to get that optimistic slant out of his speech either.

    Sounded like he was almost trying to talk the market down to me.
    20 Nov 2012, 02:23 PM Reply Like
  • Joe

    I agree 100%....He is running out of bullets, ideas, and he method will cause us huge inflation and unemployment...We are passed the tipping point...

    ACTUALLY i am more encouraged that the commodities are the best play right now. This fiat ponzi scheme is coming to an end

    http://bit.ly/LUiFYg

    Watch this and learn what i mean..Especially fractional reserve.. Tell me this isn't a ponzi scheme!!
    20 Nov 2012, 05:18 PM Reply Like
  • "Cost benefit of the tool(s) is just not there" -[on lowering reserve rates]
    "They gave me a Ph.D. for that" -[on concluding that uncertainty is an economic negative]
    20 Nov 2012, 02:37 PM Reply Like
  • The 'housing recovery' is his last ploy. Then it's off to retirement, to write his memoirs in five years, and to admit -- as Greenspan did -- that there was one tiny flaw into systemic understanding, one that could have been fixed by more philosophy (attempting to see the whole picture) and less Superman Cult (I will save the world from the darkness).

    Less hubris, more understanding.
    21 Nov 2012, 03:14 AM Reply Like
  • The spin on this is remarkable.

    Of course things will be better long term - after the austerity conditions are put in to prevent debt from strangling the economy.
    20 Nov 2012, 02:37 PM Reply Like
  • MICHAEL

    I will tell you the yonger generation fighting for jobs won't take an austerity budget sitting down. I know mine won't..

    Plus some of us oldies won't either!!
    20 Nov 2012, 04:46 PM Reply Like
  • Interesting Times.....

    My concern is that we may NEVER GET another budget?
    20 Nov 2012, 04:47 PM Reply Like
  • WM

    Then the end happens quicker then i expected, thats for sure!
    20 Nov 2012, 07:01 PM Reply Like
  • A number of commenters tonight on various news channels indicate no improvement in economy. Most say that there will be no cliff, but a kick the can for a couple years. In the mean time we bet 1% GDP growth and chronic unemployment. The point is there is no fix. I dont' know that I believe that. I think TPTB don't want a fix. But I do think there are some fixes......just none too palatable.
    21 Nov 2012, 12:02 AM Reply Like
  • AUSTERITY is another word for 'paying your bills'. Learning to live in a budget. Giving up the idea of DEBT.

    Make the rich pay for our AUSTERITY. Huge tax increases on the rich and rich corporations until our debts are paid. Also spending cuts (including the military) and higher interest rates.

    Will it be easy? Do we ALWAYS have to follow the easy way? Sometimes there is no EASY WAY.

    Austerity = Winter. If everyone shares it, it will be a blessing to our nation. Next time we should not be so quick to give up our freedom for the EASY WAY, the Easy Money, of Debt.
    21 Nov 2012, 03:16 AM Reply Like
  • MICHAEL

    i DON'T think the rich are actually rich enough to bail us out. Put this country and it's people on an austerity budget and they will go wild. Most have no clue what we are dealing with!!
    21 Nov 2012, 04:01 AM Reply Like
  • Ben

    Explain this !!!

    http://bloom.bg/SaU4jf
    20 Nov 2012, 03:09 PM Reply Like
  • Green shoots baby, green shoots.
    20 Nov 2012, 03:56 PM Reply Like
  • These remarks by the professor are very bullish.

    The market had never been bearish at all for the past 4 years after 2008. Instead, it had been consistently siding for the long. That is akin with human nature; there is always hope (so they think).

    Amen.
    20 Nov 2012, 04:18 PM Reply Like
  • Ben has realized that his policies are causing more damage than good to the global economy but like an Internet argument has difficulties admitting fault. If he did it would discredit all of his academic work studying how Japan reacted to their real estate crisis.

    The irony of his actions is that he has set this country on a path similar to Japan.

    It is Arthur Burns all over again.
    20 Nov 2012, 06:56 PM Reply Like
  • ...for blue-blooded girls...of independent means
    20 Nov 2012, 10:15 PM Reply Like
  • Ben is facing a den of wolves when speaking to the people of the US. He knows that everybody is starting to understand that the Fed has been meddling with finance for a long a time and that the game is up. The fed has to somehow backpaddle and somehow stabilize that ticking bomb before they are all out of a job and possibly more.
    20 Nov 2012, 11:22 PM Reply Like
  • DEBT is the Original Sin. This Sin is what gets one kicked out of Heaven.

    Marry the words "Bank" and "Corrupt" and you get a faxsimile of the word "bankrupt".
    21 Nov 2012, 03:18 AM Reply Like
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