NationStates Jolt Archive

Is anyone else praying that Bernanke has enough sense to not attempt to fix what he cannot? Woe be to us if he seeks a full employment policy. Greenspan did a wonderful job, but other than that the Fed has a rather shitty track record.

Is anyone else praying that Bernanke has enough sense to not attempt to fix what he cannot? Woe be to us if he seeks a full employment policy. Greenspan did a wonderful job, but other than that the Fed has a rather shitty track record.

Hell, even Greenspan botched the dot-com bubble and bears partial responsibility for the 2001 recession...

I think Bernanke is going to be a competent Federal Reserve chairman; really, I say beyond a doubt he's going to maintain continuity with the Greenspan policy and isn't going to try any radical policy.

Inflation is moderate, the economy is going strong and the housing bubble isn't bursting as was feared...if he just keeps cool and doesn't overreact (as Greenspan did in 2000), he'll do a good job.

Hell, even Greenspan botched the dot-com bubble and bears partial responsibility for the 2001 recession...

I think Bernanke is going to be a competent Federal Reserve chairman; really, I say beyond a doubt he's going to maintain continuity with the Greenspan policy and isn't going to try any radical policy.

Inflation is moderate, the economy is going strong and the housing bubble isn't bursting as was feared...if he just keeps cool and doesn't overreact (as Greenspan did in 2000), he'll do a good job.
Greenspan was the most competent up to his reign. Everyone else fucked up terribly. If Ben Bernanke keeps to the Greenspan Doctrine, then I will not be as worried. But if the tales of Helicopter Ben are true, then I will begin to worry.

Greenspan was the most competent up to his reign. Everyone else fucked up terribly. If Ben Bernanke keeps to the Greenspan Doctrine, then I will not be as worried. But if the tales of Helicopter Ben are true, then I will begin to worry.

I would say Volker was even more competent than Greenspan; after all, he tamed the inflation of the 70's and handed a much easier job to Greenspan than what he had inherited from his predecessor.

Considering that Bernanke has written my Macroeconomics Textbook, I think I know a little about what the guy thinks of macroeconomic policy.

And that is that he will care even less about the rest of the economy than Greenspan. He concerns himself only with inflation and interest rates. For that purpose he will go about this much more mathematically, and I expect the first thing he will do is to announce an inflation target (something the gut-feeling Greenspan never did).

He is not ever going to care about unemployment.