FOMC Speech

Bb_congress
I simply cannot muster the interest to listen to or read this testimony. Can’t even feign it.

Would someone please do me a favor and let me know if there is anything significant in it? 

Thanks . . .

Source:
The economy and financial markets
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate
Federal Reserve, February 14, 2008
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/bernanke20080214a.htm

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  1. michael schumacher commented on Feb 14

    with you on that one……tired of hearing the denial and uneducated “questions” from the grandstanding politicos.

    The ironic thing about it is that the people asking questions yesterday (Clemens) will be much more informed than this group. One of them didn’t know what a T.A.F. was the last time he was “testifying”

    Ciao
    MS

  2. crgj commented on Feb 14

    Bernanke sez: No Recession in 08. Thank god that’s over, and soon.

  3. UrbanDigs commented on Feb 14

    Ben says to buy stocks, save bread, and to believe what corporate CEO’s tell us.

  4. Mr. Beach commented on Feb 14

    The problem is not liquidity.

    It is insolvency that is the direct consequence of deeply shoddy lending practices.

    The solution isn’t to throw more money at the problem.

    The solution is to demand and then *enforce* that lending institutions clean up their practices.

    But that would mean actually make tough political choices. And we don’t do that in America anymore.

  5. michael schumacher commented on Feb 14

    since the Fed , and now the MSM have put the interest rate problem ( the fact that lending costs have risen against Fed cuts) in rosey pie in the sky language I totally expect Cinefiz to understand it now.

    But There is always Hope…….

    Ciao
    MS

  6. scorpio commented on Feb 14

    my beard is geting itchy.

  7. Valdan commented on Feb 14

    Bernanke sez: No Recession in 08.

    But 2009, now that’s going to be a killer. Especially if a Democrat is elected president. Then, all the props that have been put under our economy to keep it floating will be pulled out.

  8. Ross commented on Feb 14

    Larry, Curly and Moe. You choose.

  9. worth commented on Feb 14

    Seems more interested/concerned about jobs than I recall him typically being – he’s ALWAYS keen on keeping inflation in check, but he makes a mention about their dual mandate of full employment and price stability towards the end of his remarks, along with a whole paragraph about the softening labor market earlier in his remarks.

  10. Craig Torres commented on Feb 14

    Bernanke Pledges `Adequate Insurance Against Downside Risks’

    TALK ABOUT COUNTERPARTY RISK!

  11. Leawoodblues commented on Feb 14

    Bernanke was adamant that he never took an HGH or B-12 shot.

  12. Peter B commented on Feb 14

    With Bernanke’s reiteration of his current rate cutting path, the credit market noose continues to tighten and thus is diluting his attempt at lowering the cost of money and is very much an unintended consequence of his slashing of rates. Here are some examples, the leveraged loan market has dried up b/c most of this paper is floating rate whose yields keep going down b/c of fed rate cuts while credit default risk of the underlying credit keeps going up, thus no bids. Auction Rate Security auctions are failing b/c fed rate cuts are making this money mkt paper unattractive b/c of lower yield at higher credit risk. The CRB is at all time record highs and is sending the 10 yr bond yield to the highest in a month which is almost 20 bps above the level before the 75 bps surprise cut.

  13. bidask commented on Feb 14

    Uncle Ben looks like a deer in headlights. Paulson when asked about students who might not get funding because of the credit crunch, says – ‘We’re keeping an eye on that’.. LOL…Just like Katrina!….I can’t believe these guys are running anything.

  14. JustinTheSkeptic commented on Feb 14

    If bull-shit was music they’d make a great three piece band!

  15. scorpio commented on Feb 14

    i may let the beard grow out. use it as a comb-over. or maybe a hair-shirt.

  16. hal commented on Feb 14

    they have referred to the working group several times.

    I am waiting for a slip of the tongue and they say PPT!

    if this is leadership we are doomed.

  17. sunsetbeachguy commented on Feb 14

    As Winston Churchill said,

    “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, AFTER they have exhausted all other options.”

  18. Street Creds commented on Feb 14

    For all the money Paulson makes you think his suit would look better. He should get Mozilo’s tailor. His suits have pockets to hide cash.

  19. Marcus Aurelius commented on Feb 14

    BB: Even though the Ship of Finance is sinking, we’ll continue to bail instead of giving the order to abandon ship. If the steerage class and crew find out how bad things really are, we’ll have pandemonium and mutiny. In order to instill confidence in the integrity of the ship, I’ve been cutting lifeboats loose for the past couple of days and letting them float away. We’re down to three at the moment. One is for the officers and the other is for first-class passengers. I’m fixin’ to cut the remaining one loose in just a few minutes. I suggest everyone here make their way – as inconspicuously as possible – to the two lifeboats located on the far starboard (right) of the ship.

    Did you think I was going to say women and children first?

    Quaint.

  20. Ben commented on Feb 14

    Once the testify ends, the market will rally. For those who short the market, better cover it before the huge buy up begins.

  21. JustinTheSkeptic commented on Feb 14

    But you guys are missing the fact that U.S. companies are showing double-digit profits outside the banking sector. (Problem is all their profits are coming from overseas…how is that going to continue, with our economy and according to most everything I read, the economies around the world, slowing?). Where is the beef bulls? Don’t believe the bullshit that the pundits both on wall street and washington are spewing. Educate me please!

  22. Street Creds commented on Feb 14

    Crap when will Spitzer shut his pie hole. Blah, Blah, Blah, look at me, listen to me. Bernake should excuse himself, go out and put more money into his parking meter, Beranke could out for a moustach and beard trim.

  23. Street Creds commented on Feb 14

    Oops my bad, I didn’t realize we had switched meetings.

  24. Ali Saygin commented on Feb 14

    “If my aunt had bullocks, I would call her my uncle”

    Same blah blah. Start punishing some financial companies by giving them less slack. Lets suffer the ones who made bad investment decisions.

  25. Steve W commented on Feb 14

    Ha Ha! I can tell you what’s in it and I didn’t even read it…”Blah, blah, blah…we’ll do everything necessary to save our buddies and our jobs by privatizing profits and socializing the losses”

  26. michael schumacher commented on Feb 14

    The last sentence basically describes a “put”.

    “The FOMC will be carefully evaluating incoming information bearing on the economic outlook and will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.”

    Especially the last seven words………

    The Bernancke Put defined by non-other than Mr. Backstop himself.

    Ciao
    MS

  27. JustinTheSkeptic commented on Feb 14

    MS, it’s going to be interesting where this “put” mentality leads us down the road. Problem is I might have to watch it from the poor-house. Twice now, I had the insight (or lack there of) to load up the truck on puts only to have them basically melt away. Bernanke’s a cock-sucker! lol

  28. alex p commented on Feb 14

    What struck me was the hemming and hawing by Paulson. If he were asked what color tie he was wearing, it would take three minutes to answer. He just struck me as someone who knows the severity of the situation but can’t come out directly and say anything consequential about it.

  29. stevez commented on Feb 14

    Bernanke said he was not responsible for the bubble on Roger Clemens’ butt either.

  30. Stuart commented on Feb 14

    Message from Congress: There doesn’t appear to be a sense of urgency on part of you three in front of us. Other than that same as what we’ve heard before.

  31. donna commented on Feb 14

    I think he should have sent out the helicopters to drop us all Valentines with $100 bills in them.

    Hmmph.

  32. London Banker commented on Feb 14

    Contrast this spin and misdirection with Mervyn King of the Bank of England. Yesterday he said in a speech that Britons should expect “a lower standard of living”, to spend more on food and fuel, and to watch the value of their houses decline for 3 to 4 years. He advised banks to “urgently” bolster their reserves, “even though it will hurt their shareholders”, and to quickly as possible strengthen their balance sheets to be able to serve borrowers.

    Absolutely spot on analysis of problems and the scale of what’s ahead. Honest, unvarnished truth. Nice for a change.

  33. London Banker commented on Feb 14

    Contrast this spin and misdirection with Mervyn King of the Bank of England. Yesterday he said in a speech that Britons should expect “a lower standard of living”, to spend more on food and fuel, and to watch the value of their houses decline for 3 to 4 years. He advised banks to “urgently” bolster their reserves, “even though it will hurt their shareholders”, and to quickly as possible strengthen their balance sheets to be able to serve borrowers.

    Absolutely spot on analysis of problems and the scale of what’s ahead. Honest, unvarnished truth. Nice for a change.

  34. diogenes commented on Feb 14

    Found it kind of interesting that when Sen. Bob Bennett started questioning Cox, Bernanke, and Paulson about the problem of Naked Short selling, that both CNBC and Fox Business found it convenient to quickly move to shut off the sound and bring their pundits in.

    But the minute Bennett’s time was over, they resumed their live broadcast of the hearings.

    Maybe there’s something in Bennett’s questions that the financial “handlers” don’t want the American public to hear.. Wouldn’t be good for market confidence if investors discovered the institutionalized counterfeiting of shares, combined with the removal of the downtick rule, might be turning their portfolios into an ATM for the brokerages and hedgies..

    Diogenes

  35. michael schumacher commented on Feb 14

    I hear you London however we have seen that movie before………

    We all “thought” we were getting an inflation hawk…..well we know how that turned out.

    king can prophetize all he wants…..it’s what he does that matters.

    Didn’t he delver a very much toned down version of this a few months ago and then lowered rates?

    Ciao
    MS

  36. Ben commented on Feb 14

    Can’t find senator Bennett’s transcript! Anyone can give me a hand?

  37. Bob commented on Feb 14

    Coincidence? Or hiding the bad news?

    http://watchingthewatchers.org/news/1360/commerce-dept-shutting-down-economic-data

    Have any idea what it costs to maintain a web site? Not much. And if the content of the web site is already being compiled and disseminated in other forms, the total cost of maintaining a site is real small. But not small enough for the Department of Commerce to maintain it’s economicindicators.gov web site which presents economic data from both the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

    Pretty good timing, eh? Economic facade starts hitting the fan and voila’, no more easy to use web site that folks can turn to in order to make up their own minds on how things are going. Hat tip to Think Progress for the info that, if you go to the Economic Indicators web site, you immediately encounter this cryptic little note: “Due to budgetary constraints, the Economic Indicators service (http://www.economicindicators.gov) will be discontinued effective March 1, 2008.”

    Budgetary restraints. Before you laugh yourself to death, think about the fact that the site only presents data already being collected by the BEA and Census. And that data will continue to be collected. Without the web site, however, it will be much harder for entities like newspapers to ferret out troubling data, i.e., data that makes it harder for the public to swallow the “all is good” pabulum doled out by the freight car-full. For example, without economicindicators.gov, would the Denver Post, by way of the AP, have come up with this:
    Frugal shoppers cut back sharply, fanning recession fears

    By Jeannine Aversa

    The Associated Press
    Funny how the end of that AP story refers to economicindicators.gov: “On the Net: Retail Sales: http://www.economicindicators.gov/

    Nor does the impending shutdown of the web site comport with the Bush admin’s announced policies on statistical information. Obviously, the Dept of Commerce at one point thought the cost of running the site was worth it, or the site would never have seen the light of day….

  38. Adam commented on Feb 15

    You guys are very good at providing leading indicators of self fulfilling prophecies. thanks eom.

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