Um, the ‘stupidity index’ blasted past the ten thousand mark again today for what must be the 28th time…(someone’s actually been keeping track!) Maybe it’s only the 27th--but you get the point.
Which begs the question as to whether or not investors bother to read the papers so they can keep up with what’s going on in the world? (Or is that only important to us non-investor types?)
If you read the headlines this morning then YOU know the top headline was about the huge number of homes with mortgages in default that the banks AREN’T foreclosing on! I’m sure you saw that story…it was on the front page of the NY Times (Which is the same city the ‘stupidity index’ calls home!) which is not to infer that all investors are New Yorkers…
But, ironically, it seems as though ‘cluelessness’ is fairly pervasive throughout the upper reaches of the financial markets, as evidenced by today’s declaration from the chairman of the Federal Reserve…
Which reflects rather poorly on the competence/mental stability of anyone who applauded Mr. Obama’s decision to re-appoint this fool to another term.
Fed Chief Cites Role of Trade Imbalances in Crisis
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: October 19, 2009
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Monday that global trade imbalances played a central role in the global economic crisis and warned that both the United States and fast-growing Asian nations needed to do more to prevent them from recurring. [Sadly, this is as close as any of these treasonous bastards will ever get to admitting they sold our economy out from under us so they could be richer…]
“We were smug,” Mr. Bernanke said of the United States in a question and answer session following his speech. [Ya think? Sure looks like a prime candidate for the ‘understatement of the century’ right there! Left to our imagination is the ‘context’ of ‘who’ was smug and why? They’re pretty smug because they’ve gotten away with it so far…but that race isn’t over yet.]
In answer to another question, he said the American financial regulatory system was “inadequate” at managing the immense inflows of cheap money from China and other countries that had huge trade surpluses. [It’s a bit bizarre to be making statements like that when he himself is responsible for not lifting a finger to correct those same ‘inadequacies’! This is like clucking his tongue at the ‘stupidity’ of the US public…will he still be clucking his tongue at us as we slip the noose around his neck? (Because that’s what you do to traitors, you hang them.)]
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Bernanke acknowledged that trade imbalances had declined sharply as a result of the crisis, mainly because trade itself plunged, but he warned that American foreign indebtedness would aggravate the imbalances once again unless the United States reduced its soaring federal budget deficit. [Um, gee…what did he expect to happen when everybody max’ed out credit they couldn’t afford? And this guy is the head of the central bank because of what?]
“The United States must increase its national saving rate,” he said. [A little tough to do when most of us owe more than we make…] “The most effective way to accomplish this goal is by establishing a sustainable fiscal trajectory, anchored by a clear commitment to substantially reduce federal deficits over time.” [He’s the one pissing your future tax dollars out the door faster than they can be collected! Worse, his handing that money to people who already have more than they know what to do with…so the assholes, clueless as they are, simply ‘park’ the money! Doing nobody any good!]
The federal deficit for the 2009 fiscal year soared to $1.4 trillion, almost triple the deficit in 2008, and budget analysts predict that budget deficits will average almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade.
By the same token, he said, Asian countries needed to rely less on exports and more on their consumption at home for their economic growth. One way to increase Asian household consumption, he said, would be for countries like China to increase social insurance programs and reduce the uncertainty that currently hangs over many consumers. [Understand, ‘BenBer’ is a Republican who’d rather chew his own hand off at the wrist than permit one destitute US citizen to be comforted at the taxpayer’s expense. BenBer and his cronies have been extremely busy draining the Treasury and dismantling the safety net so US taxpayers won’t be, er, ‘inconvenienced’ by social safety nets we can no longer afford because these chiseling fucks dropped all of the tarrifs protecting US workers, then had the balls to move their production facilities overseas too!]
Speaking at a conference of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mr. Bernanke said Asian countries had bounced back from the global recession faster than the rest of the world and had become the engine of the global economic recovery. [Which is yet another blatant lie…no customers here means no customers there either!]
“By and large, countries in Asia came into the crisis with fairly strong macroeconomic fundamentals,” Mr. Bernanke said, and noted that countries like China, Japan and Korea had fought the downturn with aggressive stimulus programs. [To head off what would have been massive civil unrest.]
With the Asian economy expanding at an annualized rate of 9 percent in the second quarter of this year, and China’s economy expanding at rates of more than 10 percent, Mr. Bernanke said, “Asia appears to be leading the global recovery.” [Is the operative word here ‘appears’? The only bureaucracy more ‘opaque’ than the US government is the Chinese government…]
But the Fed chairman warned that the United States-led crisis was fueled in large part by huge inflows of cheap money to the United States from countries like China that were trying to recycle dollars from their huge trade surpluses. [As has been stated repeatedly, they ‘recycled’ their dollars to keep the Yuan competitive…which has produced some very bizarre, er, ‘side effects’.]
The Fed chairman noted that global trade and financial imbalances had narrowed considerably since the crisis began, largely because the volume of international trade contracted by 20 percent from its peak before the crisis. [What Mr. Andrews fails to mention here is that 20% is gone for good. The money that paid for that extra slice of market share has left the building, never to return.]
But he cautioned that the imbalances could widen out again as economic growth revives. While the United States has to tighten its belt by saving more and consuming less, China and other Asian countries need to increase their consumer spending to promote faster domestic economic growth. [It is easy to foresee a time when if it isn’t made here, there won’t be any market for it here, the US public is so angry over having their economy sold out from underneath them…so the rich could get richer!]
Mr. Bernanke avoided what was in many ways the elephant in the room: the value of the United States dollar. The dollar has dropped sharply in recent weeks against the euro and the Japanese yen, which has helped increase American exports by making them cheaper in some foreign markets. But the dollar has not budged in more than a year against China’s renminbi, which the Chinese continue to tightly manage and which many economists say remains greatly undervalued.
If we keep that last statement rolling, we are also faced with um, ‘total inaction’ over this blatant ‘currency manipulation’ by the Chinese.
Wave a little money under the nose of a capitalist and you can use his front yard as your personal cesspool…he won’t care, hell, he won’t even complain because as far as he’s concerned he’s getting the better deal!
Strangely, in twelve more months the ‘mid-term’ elections will be upon us. What slaps one in the face because it is so shocking is that the ballot box has produced zero change in the conservative hijacking of our society.
If we want it back, you know what has to be done…
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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