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Bernanke gets an earful from Ron Paul: "Congress and the Fed are symbiotic because the Congress...

  • Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 6:15 PM ET
    Bernanke gets an earful from Ron Paul: "Congress and the Fed are symbiotic because the Congress spends and they know there is a moral hazard involved because they know that if interest rates go up, the Fed accommodates them. So the Fed really facilitates this spending... the Fed is involved with our deficit and encourages it as well as the Congress."
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This news story has 46 comments:

  • Ron Paul is a nut case....
    2 Mar 2011, 06:20 PM Reply Like
  • That's head nut case to you troll.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:25 PM Reply Like
  • Is it trollish to diss Ron Paul on SA?
    2 Mar 2011, 06:33 PM Reply Like
  • Please explain why.
    At the same time explain why Ben is not.
    2 Mar 2011, 07:28 PM Reply Like
  • The electorate is just as guilty. As a society we are unwilling to make tough choices and insist on having everything even though we don't have the ability to pay for everything. And we elect those who follow our orders.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:33 PM Reply Like
  • Darn skippy!
    2 Mar 2011, 06:36 PM Reply Like
  • I would have agreed with you once upon a time but here's the problem - the ultra-elite, who need it least, have completely fleeced the system. Capitalism is one thing but what these parasites have done is privatize their gains while offloading losses to the taxpayers. So you tell me why the masses shouldn't fight for their piece of the pie.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:45 PM Reply Like
  • two wrongs do not make it right
    2 Mar 2011, 10:29 PM Reply Like
  • But three lefts do.
    2 Mar 2011, 10:41 PM Reply Like
  • This is all one big cluster f... Of a distraction. Nothing is meaningful till we knee cap the fed and lock Benny boy out of the printing press room. This is simple kids! Its just math. No more spending! Period.
    What's not to understand about that?
    Jerry
    2 Mar 2011, 06:39 PM Reply Like
  • I agree with you Jerry...but it won´t happen..money buys votes...it will crash before it is stopped.....and crashing will not be good....
    2 Mar 2011, 06:46 PM Reply Like
  • But even nut cases or head cases can be right once in awhile. Nothing is absolute.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:51 PM Reply Like
  • Ron Paul is an OB GYN from Texas who subscribes to a less than rigorous
    economic philosophy that if ever adopted would guarantee an economic depression for this country. He is one of the gravest threats to this country.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:51 PM Reply Like
  • Pain now or tons of pain later, that's the options we have.. Obviously the kick the can down the road Fed and our ignorant govt will choose a printing press on steroids versus adopt any common sense measures.

    The gravest threat to this country is not Ron Paul, it's the idiots currently in office.
    2 Mar 2011, 06:56 PM Reply Like
  • "rigorous economic philosophy" means Bernanke wrote a paper in 1995 and he will stick to his recipe NO MATTER what.

    THE gravest threat to humanity has always come from people with God complex who are not accountable to anyone. That describes Bernanke better than Ron Paul (or any other congressperson)
    2 Mar 2011, 07:01 PM Reply Like
  • That may be bbro but knocking his credentials.... well, I heard him speak and am interested in what he has to say. And the argument in the copy above is not a bad one.
    2 Mar 2011, 07:41 PM Reply Like
  • bbro (Big brother? Tres Orwellian).

    I've read through your comments from the previous month (or so).

    What is your career?
    2 Mar 2011, 10:20 PM Reply Like
  • Yes, in the same way sobriety and a real job is a threat to addicts.
    3 Mar 2011, 02:14 AM Reply Like
  • We do not need an economic depression to correct our ills...which
    is what a Ron Paul austrian economic policy would bring....
    3 Mar 2011, 04:24 AM Reply Like
  • But he is simple minded....
    3 Mar 2011, 04:25 AM Reply Like
  • The 1590 on his SAT,,,not a bad score for God....
    3 Mar 2011, 04:29 AM Reply Like
  • God would get 1600. If he wants to be God 1590 is a terrible score.
    3 Mar 2011, 07:17 AM Reply Like
  • The first senator today got it correct - He spoke about the need for government to cut and spend within it's means and that our governments policies have negativity impacted the recovery.
    Leaving the only option was Ben to take the action that he did. If the government focused on priorities JOBS. Maybe we wouldn't be in this horrible situation.
    The US does not have any leaders right now and that is scary on many fronts.
    2 Mar 2011, 07:08 PM Reply Like
  • People need to make more than 60K per year to do better than the people collecting... at 60K per year companies would rather move overseas for MUCH less.

    Free market at work.

    Lowes lays off 1200 full time workers with benefits & hires the same amount of no benefit seasonal workers.

    Awesome.

    The government\Fed believing it can control everything is why it controls nothing.
    2 Mar 2011, 08:17 PM Reply Like
  • Ron Paul is stupid old man. Old man and too much wine.
    2 Mar 2011, 07:42 PM Reply Like
  • You're an idiot.
    2 Mar 2011, 08:37 PM Reply Like
  • To some degree I hope the Republicans get their way or at least enough of it to tick off the voters like they did in the ninties with Clinton. Did any one else read the NBC/WSJ poll or what ever it is. I've claimed the Republican party for 40 years and my opinion is that the tea party is just about to ruin this grand old party. When it is all over the Tea Party may be the best thing that has happened to the Democrats for years.
    2 Mar 2011, 09:43 PM Reply Like
  • Yep! Go Sarah! Please oh please make her your nominee TP! :) or the nutcase from Minn will do as well!
    2 Mar 2011, 09:47 PM Reply Like
  • Everything you just said if this was crazy opposites day and we were all drunk and stoned.
    2 Mar 2011, 10:39 PM Reply Like
  • Only if you run Hilary!
    2 Mar 2011, 10:49 PM Reply Like
  • Oh yes, let's keep going "wee!" on the see-saw for another 60 years (wait...we won't last that long)
    3 Mar 2011, 02:16 AM Reply Like
  • Doesn't matter...China is about to end the dollar as reserve currency.
    Via ZH and seemingly covered by no one...
    www.reuters.com/articl...

    The ZH post with additional articles..
    www.zerohedge.com/arti...

    "And confirming that the PBoC announcement is far more serious than the amount of airtime allotted to it by the mainstream media, is the just released article in Spiegel "China Attacked the Dollar" (google translated):

    The Chinese central bank surprised with a spectacular announcement: The would-be superpower wants to handle their entire future foreign trade in yuan, not in dollars. Beijing shakes America's claim to represent the key currency - with serious consequences for the U.S..

    The announcement was inconspicuous , but it has the potential, to permanently change the balance of power on the world currency market: China strengthens the international role of the yuan. All exporters and importers will, this year, be allowed to settle their business with their foreign partners in Yuan, the central bank said on Wednesday in Beijing."
    2 Mar 2011, 09:50 PM Reply Like
  • Funny Papaswamp, so what are they going to, depreciate their currency versus the entire world? Haha.

    Let them settle in Yuan, if they can fight the inflation, godspeed....
    2 Mar 2011, 10:59 PM Reply Like
  • The Chinese make some valid points, the most obvious is that their future is tied directly to the US when trading in Dollars. They recognize gross negligence and graft when they see it.
    2 Mar 2011, 11:06 PM Reply Like
  • Paul > Bernanke

    Bernanke is a professor from Princeton who subscribes to a less than rigorous
    economic philosophy that if ever adopted would guarantee an economic depression for this country. He is one of the gravest threats to this country.

    And I have a question for all those that fear the dreaded "deflationary spiral"... how is it that America had a ton of deflationary spirals that it always came back from more vigorous than ever before the Fed existed?

    actualanarchy.blogspot...

    Maybe deflationary spirals aren't that scary after all....the only one that anyone can point to as being bad is the Great Depression, but almost everyone blames the Fed for that anyway!
    2 Mar 2011, 10:39 PM Reply Like
  • FDR prolonged the Great Depression by 7 years.

    newsroom.ucla.edu/port...

    Alphabet intervention always makes it worse.
    2 Mar 2011, 10:41 PM Reply Like
  • Ben Bernanke was right about one thing today:

    "Consumers don't want to buy gold."

    Nope - I really don't. But I have been forced to by all the FED's f'in money printing.
    2 Mar 2011, 10:43 PM Reply Like
  • Did you catch the irony in the gold ring on Bernanke's finger as he spoke those very words?
    2 Mar 2011, 10:45 PM Reply Like

  • Ron Paul raises some interesting issues. I think that the argument that the Fed "enables" the deficit spending that Congress engages in is like the argument that I "enable" a burglar by failing to install the most expensive alarm system and thereby "tempting" him to break into and rob my house. It is an argument that has been made but I think it is a weak one - Congress is responsible for the budget and Paul seems to finally acknowledge that. While I do not agree with the argument for a return to the gold standard, I do think that the events of the last 10 or 11 years suggest that we should explore some public policy measures more carefully targeted at our problems. For example, our solution to higher oil prices seems to be to have recession so that lots of people don't have to drive to work and gasoline demand is reduced by unemployment. Similarly, easy monetary policy is a very blunt tool to use to address unemployment; a program like the Kurzarbeit used in Germany should at least be seriously explored as an alternative. We should have an intelligent debate on these issue and there well may be significant changes that should be made. But we should always keep our eye on the ball - the goal is the welfare of the American people, the strength of the real economy, and national security. We should never sacrifice these to a slavish devotion to economic dogma of any kind.
    3 Mar 2011, 12:10 AM Reply Like
  • Philip, While I think the type of analogy you use is correct, I think the situation is more equivalent to me putting a million dollars in my front lawn and then getting mad because someone stole my million dollars. Well, maybe they shouldn't have taken what's not theirs, but no one would say I'm not an idiot. Why should we partner a group of men who have every incentive to buy off voters (or at least particular blocks thereof) with an institution that allows them to print all the money they want. Make no mistake that the Fed is ultimately beholden to Congress; Congress created the Fed; Congress can dismantle the Fed. They don't because it serves their purpose. Deny Congress access to the printing presses, and the budget will balance in a hurry.
    3 Mar 2011, 12:36 AM Reply Like
  • I actually tried that a few days ago. The one million dollars was in twenties and I left in on my lawn in a hefty bag. The next day the bag and the twenties were still there but there was a note on the bag = "we only take Canadian money." A sign of the times.
    3 Mar 2011, 08:35 AM Reply Like
  • ron paul is really not that bright. our us dollar is backed by a giaganic country with phenomenal natural resources and three hundred and forty million people. ron paul is living in a cave...and should stay there. he is archaic and froths at the mouth when he speaks; that frothing is kinda scary..
    3 Mar 2011, 01:50 AM Reply Like
  • Yeah, what is that $14 trillion in debt anyways?

    $14,000,000,000,000

    A trillion is 1,000 Billion.

    A billion is 1,000 million

    Frothing at the mouth, yeah, you must be right.
    3 Mar 2011, 02:19 AM Reply Like
  • OOH BIg Numbers....scary...
    3 Mar 2011, 04:27 AM Reply Like
  • Not nearly as big or scary as the Derivatives Markets.

    Those numbers are in the Quadrillions.
    3 Mar 2011, 04:49 AM Reply Like
  • 310 million people is the population not 340 million. The currency is backed by the potential output of those that are working. Total civilian labor force is ~153 million of which ~139 million are employed.
    The US has ~ $14.2 Trillion in debt (on the books), plus massive off books liabilities such as Fannie/Freddie, Social Security, etc.. This ends us up somewhere in the range of $50 Trillion total....or basically a 'triple mortgage' on our yearly GDP.
    3 Mar 2011, 05:05 AM Reply Like
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