Here's Rep. Maxine Waters, quizzing Ben Bernanke and confusing the heck out of the Discount Rate and the Federal Funds rate.
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If you need help, you can go here, or read this.
Please remember, Rep. Waters has been on the House Financial Services Committee for years. Years. She has a staff.
I'm no Ben Bernanke (or Federal Reserve) fan, but you have to enjoy the look on Bernanke's face. Remember the Fed hearings where Alan Greenspan had to answer questions that Mary Bono (the late Congressman Sonny Bono's widow) was reading from index cards? This is kinda like that, but worse.
Go here, where even CBS is wondering "Is Maxine Waters Really As Dumb As She Seems?"
Remember, when it comes to government involvement in almost anything, small is good. Very small.
I found the Dummies book cover on Stephen Smith's blog.
2 comments:
I had to stop watching that video in mid-stream because it was making me ill both from Waters' stupidity and Bernanke's lies.
Let me clarify something: the interest rates she was talking about in her initial question were mortgage interest rates. Those are expected to increase in the next 4-6 weeks because the Federal Reserve will complete its purchase program of Mortgage Backed Securities.
So, believe it or not, Waters was actually talking to the CORRECT person regarding her irrational worries.
Waters is a complete moron, but Bernanke clearly AVOIDED the intent of her question. She kept coming back to mortgage rates so he knew exactly what she was talking about.
He also LIED when he said that the discount rate is unrelated to monetary policy. It is one of the major policy tools of the Fed. Raising the discount rate contracts money supply which will raise all interest rates, including mortgage rates.
He may be correct that the net effect on mortgage rates is small, but he had a duty to make that clear to her and to address her question regarding mortgage rates.
Agree with Nick...
A story from Ron Paul goes... He was questioning Bernanke and said something like: "Since we've gone off the gold standard blah blah blah".... After the committee meeting, a long time congress person/FiServ Committee member pulled him aside and said, "So, gold doesn't back the dollar now?"
He won't say who it is - but now, I've got my suspicions.
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