Yeah who's core function is bailing all your rich fat assed corrupt rat bastard friends. FYI.

Thinks be heating up-lets see what Pau'ls bill will go..….




Bernanke Says Limiting Fed Independence Would ‘Impair’ Economy

By Craig Torres

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said removing the central bank from bank supervision and tampering with its political independence would “seriously impair” economic stability in the U.S.
“A number of the legislative proposals being circulated would significantly reduce the capacity of the Federal Reserve to perform its core functions,” the Fed Chairman said in a commentary released yesterday on the Web site of the Washington Post. The measures “would seriously impair the prospects for economic and financial stability in the U.S..”
Bernanke has presided over the most expansive use of Fed powers since the Great Depression. While the 55-year-old Fed chairman has said he averted a financial meltdown, lawmakers have voiced concern about taxpayer-sponsored bailouts and proposed the most sweeping dismantlement of Fed authority since the creation of the institution in 1913.
Bernanke’s commentary is his first comprehensive answer to proposals in the House and Senate that would limit the Fed’s supervisory powers and exert more political oversight in the setting of interest rates. The issues are likely to be discussed when he faces the Senate Banking Committee on Dec. 3 for a hearing on his nomination to a second term as chairman.
“Congress has a lot of public support for an attack on the Fed,” Allan Meltzer, a Fed historian and professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said in an interview Nov. 23. “They bailed out everybody in sight.”
Lax Supervision
Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, has criticized the central bank for lax supervision and introduced legislation this month that would strip bank oversight from the Fed and create a single bank regulator. Dodd would also limit the central bank’s ability to loan to individual companies.
“There is a strong case for a continued role for the Federal Reserve in bank supervision,” Bernanke said. “Because of our role in making monetary policy, the Fed brings unparalleled economic and financial expertise to its oversight of banks.”
The Fed chairman pointed to capital adequacy tests the Fed performed in May which helped restore confidence in the banking system. The Standard and Poor’s 500 Financials Index has increased 34 percent since May 1, outperforming the S&P 500 by about 10 percentage points.
Dodd and Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, want to take away the Fed’s rule- writing power on consumer financial products and give it to a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
‘Excessive Risk-taking’
“The Federal Reserve, like other regulators around the world, did not do all that it could have to constrain excessive risk-taking in the financial sector in the period leading up to the crisis,” Bernanke said. The Fed has reviewed its performance and “moved aggressively to fix the problems,” he added.
As the subprime mortgage crisis began to trigger losses in bank portfolios, Bernanke used emergency authority last year to purchase securities from Bear Stearns Cos. and facilitate its merger with JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Fed chairman said that the government’s actions, while in some instances “distasteful and unfair,” were necessary to prevent “a global economic catastrophe that could have rivaled the Great Depression in length and severity.”
Bernanke pushed the Fed’s backstop lending beyond banks, setting up programs to support the commercial paper and asset- backed securities markets. The Fed Board approved the bank holding company applications of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, giving them access to the Fed’s loan window.
Propped Up Markets
The former Princeton University economist and Great Depression scholar has more than doubled the Fed’s assets to $2.21 trillion and become the lender of last resort to government bond dealers, banks, Wall Street firms and U.S. corporations. The central bank has also propped up markets for mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities that support credit to consumers, small businesses and commercial real estate.
A financial regulatory reform bill proposed by Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, would limit Fed emergency lending to broadly available credit programs.
The Frank bill preserves the Obama administration’s proposal to make the Fed the lead regulator of risk across the financial system.
The central bank’s independence is also under fire from both chambers of Congress. Frank’s committee advanced a proposal this month to remove a three-decade ban on congressional audits of Fed interest-rate decisions. The proposal was offered by Representative Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas, and based on a bill with more than 300 co-sponsors.
Less Independent
Bernanke said studies show that central banks independent of political influence tend to keep inflation and interest rates lower than their less independent counterparts.
“The general repeal of that exemption would serve only to increase the perceived influence of Congress on monetary policy decisions, which would undermine the confidence the public and the markets have in the Fed to act in the long-term economic interest of the nation,” Bernanke said.
Under the proposal by Dodd, commercial banks would lose their power to appoint directors of the 12 regional Fed banks. Instead, directors would be chosen by the Fed’s Senate-confirmed governors, and each board chairman would be appointed by the president of the United States and subject to Senate approval.
The proposal would increase political oversight of the Fed bank presidents, who are among the most vocal proponents on the Federal Open Market Committee for keeping inflation low.
‘Financial Stability’
“Now more than ever, America needs a strong, nonpolitical and independent central bank with the tools to promote financial stability and to help steer our economy to recovery without inflation,” Bernanke said.
Policy makers cut the benchmark lending rate to a range of zero to 0.25 percent almost a year ago and this month reiterated a pledge to keep the policy rate low for “an extended period.”
While the economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter, unemployment jumped to 10.2 percent in October. The Fed’s challenge is to support growth without unleashing expectations of higher inflation prompted by aggressive monetary stimulus.
“The ultimate goal of all our efforts is to restore and sustain economic prosperity,” Bernanke said. “Our ability to take such actions without engendering sharp increases in inflation depends heavily on our credibility and independence from short-term political pressures.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Torres in Washington at ctorres3@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 28, 2009 00:12 EST

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2...yEh2Kk&pos

But of course...! Wouldn't want to stop the control or the gravy train.

I need to start yoga or something. Their crap pisses me off too much to be considered healthy.

TDM  Wrote:

I need to start yoga or something. Their crap pisses me off too much to be considered healthy.

Yup. Deep meditation keeps me sane ;)

Recession is Over, Welcome Back to the Depression

One turkey turns to the other...

"Things were pretty rough there for a while...what with the recession and all. But now there's a recovery. Business is picking up."

"Yeah, this is great...no more hanging around this place waiting...finally, the boss says we're all shipping out today..."

"I wonder what we're going to be doing..."

"I don't know...I'm going to some place called 'Butterball Birds'..."

"Hey, sounds like it might be fun...maybe it's some kind of theme park. I'm going to work for a fellow named Frank Perdue..."

As our friend Nassim Taleb says, a turkey's life is very agreeable...until the very last day. Until then, his whole life is a bull market. Everything looks good. Good food. A roof over his head. Plenty of company. Even free health care. The MPT guys would look at his history. They'd see no volatility. Every day, the turkey gains weight. Every day things get better. They'd see all reward and no risk. They'd say 'every investor should have turkeys in his portfolio.'

The chartists, too. They'd look at the turkey's life and see a line moving steadily up. 'Is this a winner or what," they'd say to each other.

And what about the economists? Well, the old-timers would be suspicious. 'There's no such thing as all upside...there's no boom without a bust,' they'd grumble. But the young fellows wouldn't listen. They'd plump for the turkeys without hesitation, confident that if anything were to go wrong, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner would set it right lickety-split.

And now, they think the Bernanke-Geithner team has just pulled off a save. Thanks to them, the turkeys who ran Wall Street - and invested in it - have been spared. America is getting back to work.

But what kind of work?

Alas, it's the work of a DEPRESSION - de-leveraging, busting up, working out loans, defaulting on debt...going chapters 11 and 7.

Yes, dear reader, the recession is over. Welcome back to the Depression. The number crunchers reported a positive GDP growth figure for the last quarter of 3.5%. Everyone cheered. Now, the crunchers admit that they were a little too optimistic. The real number is only 2.8%. But it's still positive. So the recovery is still on...

Sort of. If you deconstruct the numbers, and pull out all the feds' hot money effects, you'll probably find that the economy is not growing at all. How could it be? It's a consumer economy. Consumers aren't consuming...

The Wall Street Journal reports that "One in four borrowers underwater."

Mortgage delinquencies at a record high, adds The New York Times.

Real joblessness is at 17.5%, reports CNBC.

Insiders are selling 17 of their own shares for every one that they buy.

"Consumers lose appetite for dining out," says The Los Angeles Times.

The National Retail Federation thinks holiday sales will be 1% lower than last year. And last year they were depressed.

But The New York Times is worried about us over here in England. "Lost decade feared for British economy," says a headline.

As we pointed out yesterday, the US economy has already suffered a lost decade. No employment growth in the last ten years. No gains in the stock market. No household income growth. As near as we can tell, the whole nation is just another decade older and deeper in debt.

But that's the way it works, isn't it? A bull market on Wall Street...or a boom in the economy...they're just like a turkey's life. It's all fine...until it ain't fine any more.

And now, we're going to let you in on the secret. You can pass this on to the White House and the Fed if you like.

How can you really get an economy out of a depression? Well, you have to get into a depression first. Then, you can get out.

The cure for a depression, in other words, is a depression. Nothing else will do. Mistakes need to be addressed and corrected. Losses need to be recognized and written off. Bad decisions need to be put right.

So, bring on the depression! Get it on. Get it over with.

Too bad the feds don't get it at all.

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/bonner...12709.html

funny little crooks.

they must sense their time is running out.

He doesn't think the American people want congress running monetary policy?

Someone needs electroshock therapy, strapped to an old stripped down coil spring mattress.