5:00 am ET
Apr 27, 2011


Economists, Readers Offer Questions for Bernanke

    • I'm sure the questions won't be pre-staged softballs resulting in a propoganda session for the public.

      What's the point in even listening to this criminal any longer?

    • The Refi Plus program will waive the normal credit score requirement for a refinance; it will have reduced documentation standards for proof of income; and it will allow for computer-based appraisals, which tend to inflate the value of a home and make it easier to qualify for a refinance. Search online for "Mortgage Refinance 123" they are the best and fast.

    • I wish someone would ask Bernanke where he got the figure of 600 billion dollars for his last round of QE (QE2). Can he show us the formulas he used or did he just pull the number out of his head?

      The idiot Bernanke does not even realize that he is being set up as the fall guy for the economic failings of the current administration. By moving himself more into to the national spot light he is setting up the FED to become the villain by both political parties. Obama will blame Bernanke for just about every ill our economy has when his reelection falters. Bernanke will replace Bush as the reason things are not getting any better. In the end (partly rightly so) he will be public enemy number one.

    • The readers questions seem more interesting than those by the professors. Shame that they will never be asked esp. this gem "Why must the Fed punish savers and investors by dropping short-term interest rates to near zero? If there is a positive psychological wealth effect from a bubbling stock market, isn’t there a contrary effect from the dwindling earnings of a savings account?"

    • I would ask Bernanke how his policies are materially different than those of G. William Miller during the late seventies that had very similar initial results that we are now experiencing and eventually led to the runaway inflation that Volcker had to crush.

    • This whole thing is kind of surreal, in that currencies are all based on what the markets will bear. There is no collateral to back up any currency. It truely is all in the minds of what each individual, collectively, think it should bear. It is all based on certain rules that must be perceived in the same way. It is all based on a set of preceptions that certain people have put a meaning on, to a value things based on their own perception that they have made other people believe in to control economies.

    • Do you think the Fed should have a mandate on employment? All the Fed can really do is cause distortions in the market which ultimately burst and lead to greater unemployment.

    • Would you considering running for President as an Independent?

    • I would ask him when he plans on resigning.

    • Why has he promoted a financial policy that strips savings from ordinary workers while giving unprecedented borrowing power to big corporations; i.e., zero rate for loans, .2 percent on savings. The worst situation in my lifetime. His policy bolsters the banks and strips savers of any gain while banks are using their money. A disgrace.

    • I gotta go with WSW pn this one. Bernanke should run for presindent. It would get him out of the Fed and he will only get 1 vote, putting an end to his career. Great idea, WSW!

    • QE1 and QE2 has caused a bubble in the US asset prices including US farm land. It has caused commodity prices to go up along with stock prices. It has caused interest rates to go down. How can suppressing interest rates benefit retired Americans who depend on interest rate payments? The increase in food and gas prices have taken a big bite out of disposal incomes for the middle class. How can the poorest of the poor who can't bargain for pay increases benefit from the inflation caused by QE1 and QE2? Is is not correct to say that the fed represents the interest of the private banks through the FOMC and are more interested in benefiting Wall Street and the regional banks, rather than Americans on Main Street? Has not your and Greenspan's action caused main stream Americans to really wonder if they really do need a Federal reserve which is causing more problems than solving? Do you think the US federal reserve should be disbanded and the cost of money (interest rates) determined by the supply and demand of money (savings and loans) rather than set arbitrarily by the US federal reserve?

    • Mr. Ben will you please present an economic map that demonstrates the economic growth locations , by industry and economic sectors? Include please the % of growth of each from 2008 and remove the effects of all the stimulus packages. Real nominal growth and not the artificial growth please. Also if you will please include the cost of each sectors growth.

      Not just words but charts and graphs supported by the words.

    • WWW111...But he'll win! Then what? The Undertaker, for one, will be re-buried!

    • I would like him to comment on the parallels between our situation now and the situation in the UK shortly before their currency was replaced as the world's reserve currency and why he thinks we won't end up in the same shape?

    • It is a shame. The Fed is waging class warfare and exacerbating the gap between the have's and have-not's by employing tactics that only the well-heeled and "plugged-in" can take advantage of with any facility.

      The Fed is choosing the winners and the losers. Investors and savers cannot make decisions based on an assessment of free market dynamics. We are left with trying to guess when Bernanke will decide that hedge fund managers have made enough in their gold trade; when the transfer payments to banks have fattened executive bonuses enough and when investment banking activity has brought in enough fee revenue as a result of M&A activity brought on by cheap money.

    • What about this question... What do you think about china cheating their, excuse me pegging, their currency to ours and how that is affecting our economy and jobs?

    • He should run for Predident by all means - against Ron Paul who would shread this clown in any forum !

    • Another Question: re. Rolling Stones, April 12, 2011 article, "The Real Housewives of Wall Street - Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?" Is the essence of the story accurate and, if so then what was the rationale for funding Waterfall TALF Opportunity? Are there other instances besides Waterfalol TALF Opportunity, where there was little invesment by the financial enterprise using bailout money?

    • Hey WSW your paranoid schizophrenia treatment doctor at Napa State mental Hospital keeps calling me to find out where you are since you escaped from the asylum. I told him your at the FED worshiping. I'm afraid that Bernanke for president statement just bought you a one way ticket back home to the electric shock therapy room again partner. Enjoy! My work here is done. Audit and abolish the FED!

    • The old Undertaker never dies, he just digs away!

    • Federal Reserve gave $220 million in bailout money to wives of two Wall Street Executives April 12, 2011 0 Comments Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone reports:

      The Federal Reserve sent billions in U.S. taxpayers’ bailout aid to banks in places like Mexico, Bahrain and Bavaria, billions more to a spate of Japanese car companies, more than $2 trillion in loans each to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, and billions more to a string of lesser millionaires and billionaires with Cayman Islands addresses. “Our jaws are literally dropping as we’re reading this,” says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “Every one of these transactions is outrageous.”

      Wall Street’s Big Win

      But if you want to get a true sense of what the “shadow budget” is all about, all you have to do is look closely at the U.S. taxpayer money handed over to a single company that goes by a seemingly innocuous name: Waterfall TALF Opportunity. At first glance, Waterfall’s haul doesn’t seem all that huge — just nine loans totaling some $220 million, made through a Fed bailout program. That doesn’t seem like a whole lot, considering that Goldman Sachs alone received roughly $800 billion in loans from the Fed. But upon closer inspection, Waterfall TALF Opportunity boasts a couple of interesting names among its chief investors: Christy Mack and Susan Karches.

      Christy is the wife of John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley. Susan is the widow of Peter Karches, a close friend of the Macks who served as president of Morgan Stanley’s investment-banking division. Neither woman appears to have any serious history in business, apart from a few philanthropic experiences. Yet the Federal Reserve handed them both low-interest loans of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars through a complicated bailout program that virtually guaranteed them millions in risk-free income.

      The Rolling Stone articles contains more details of the other trillions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars to the rich, banks, hedge funds, etc. Heck, no wonder the U.S. government is “broke”! The Federal Reserve should be shut down and Bernanke should be in prison! He makes Madoff look like a saint!

      QUESTION: With income tax day approaching, do I write my check out to the U. S. Treasury or should I just cut out the middleman and send my hard earned money to Wall Street bankers?

    • Bernanke would get one vote for president --------- WSW's!

    • Do you want your cell in San Quentin, or Rikers Island?

    • Bernanke: Fed Expects Slower Growth, Slight Rise in Inflation

      This is what he said at the first FED news conference.

      And, the DOW rose 86 points.

      Something is very wrong.

      Richard Michael Abraham

    • With the average price for regular unleaded gas in Reno ta $4.04, an increasing number of drivers are having a tough time just paying for a few gallons.

      Drivers in Reno keep hitting the pumps. But that doesn’t mean they’re filling up. Not everyone can afford to these days.

      That’s why gas station owners are seeing more of this: people only putting a few bucks worth of fuel in their tanks.

      “Three dollars will get you nowhere! Absolutely insane. It will get you nowhere!” says Tony Major, after hearing that someone at an ARCO station only put that much gas in their vehicle.

      But gas station owners say they’ve seen worse.

      “Some people have come in with like 50 cents for gas. And just enough to get them home for the day and sometimes, you know, a dollar or two but you know times are tough right now. Just getting by. I totally understand,” says Roy Brennan, owner of Roy and Dena’s 7-11 in Sparks.

      “Prices just make it difficult to do anything besides just go to work and back. Just kind of makes it difficult to have any fun,” says Todd Smith, a driver filling up at a Quikstop in Reno.

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