Needless to say, the conservative pushback since Nixon abandoned the Gold Standard in ‘71 (jettisoning Bretton Woods in the process), & Reagan brought back the long-discredited ’supply-side’ snakeoil after ‘81 has inevitably led to the current slow-motion replay of the ’20’s. These events have again proven the Friedmanite view of the world as total monetarist claptrap!

The Fed has been monetarist-based since since Greenspan’s ascension in ‘87. Unsurprisingly, this opened the way for a return of the pre-1913 cycles of boom & bust, culminating ultimately in the unhappy events of late Oct 1929. The Fed has long since been re-captured by the Wall Street crew, a process that remains undiminished under Bernanke. This represents irony squared, given his professional speciality as a 1930’s monetary economic historian; at least Princeton still has Krugman. People like this – togther with their counterparts (Rubin, Summers & Geithner) at Treasury – underline yet again the accuracy of Carlyle’s definition of economics as ‘the dismal science’.

I agree that anyone who holds these bast***s’ feet to the fire is doing a great job. Rock on Grayson! Obama, meanwhile, continues to underwhelm me.

I thought the problem was that we were over extended, can’t pay our bills, and they banks made tons of risky loans. So why not work toward getting the public some financial sustainability? Why does the government want us indentured for the rest of our lives? At least Bush promised us freedom even though he was lying. The current henchmen are stealing from under our noses. Why is it that they are not the ones who have to prove themselves to us, instead of the other way around?

grayson is doing great!!

Meanwhile an economic ideology was born which said the Great Depression was due to the failure of the Fed to step in and help supply the credit the markets stopped supplying. Which is exactly where we are now. That ideology is wrong and in 2 months or 2 years there will be another crisis as it will be seen that there isn’t enough credit in the world to make up for that which has gone bad much less start a new cycle of growth.

The obverse of credit is debt and debt, not just monetary debt, is a crucial concept which infuses all human relations especially moral and ethical. While 1 billion people live on $2 a day Americans insist on burning as much fossil fuel as possible and wracking up a huge environmental debt to the planet and future generations. A level of consumption absolutely contingent upon more debt.

Yes the Fed and the financial system and our elites engineered a disaster of monumental scale. Most Americans were willing participants and have little grasp of how monumental the problem is.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22556

AND it seems to be run by acolytes of the creepy cult of Free Market Fundamentalism.

The Federal Reserve was is Asleep at the Wheel on Systematic Risk

There fixed it for you.

I would guess controlled with Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff. Their personalities just don’t seem to blend to me. Unless there is a private and public Obama.

I am a Libra.