Fix banks first, growth will follow: Bernanke

[bemildred]

Source: MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Federal Reserve Board chief Ben Bernanke delivered a simple message Tuesday: Fix banks first and economic rowth will follow.

"If there is one message that I'd like to leave you with, if we're going to have a strong recovery, it has got to be on the back of a stabilization of the financial system. It is black and white," Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee.

"If we don't stabilize the financial system, we're going to flounder for some time," said the top U.S. central banker.

Appearing before Congress for two days of discussion on the economic outlook, the Fed chairman said the Obama administration was on the right track with the approach it's taken to reviving ailing banks during its first month in office.

Read more: MarketWatch

---

You know I was thinking, if we nationalize the banks, we won't need The Fed either.
:popcorn::popcorn:

[ixion]

1. and this assclown still has any credibility because?

:shrug:

Personally, I think he belongs behind bars.

[burythehatchet]

2. WRONG AGAIN BRILLO FACE

They still think its a "lack of confidence". They don't realize that train left the station and the problem now is "lack of trust". No one trusts anything that the rigged system does now to reclaim credibility.

[zogofzorkon]

3. jobs.. who needs jobs

just make sure those trust fund dollars keep rolling in.

[BobRossi]

4. Bullshit.

Trickle down just doesn't work. Trickle up is the only way.

When is President Obama going to get real?

[No Elephants]

8. Sadly, it's been tsunami up, not trickle up.

[Orrex]

5. And we can call it--let me think--trickle down economics!

Because, you know, when a building is collapsing, it's imperative that you fix the penthouses first. The crumbling foundation can wait 10 or 20 or 30 years.

[NeoConsSuck]

27. Excellent analogy

thank you for posting this.

The middle class (Main Street) is the foundation.

[Lugnut]

6. Why on earth would anyone want to listen to this guy?

It's not like he has any credibility or anything.

[MonkeyKnifeFight12]

7. I don't trust anyone who says "It is black and white" about anything nt

[No Elephants]

9. Think: If taxpayers have to fix the banks, taxpayers probably shouldn't fix the banks.

[Zorra]

10. "I was thinking, if we nationalize the banks, we won't need The Fed either."

bemildred, I think you've got something there. Great idea.

Eliminating all that corporate pork could save taxpayers trillions.

[InkAddict]

17. What I'm thinkin' is we better root out how many other

"shadow" international central banks (like Fed districts) there are in the world. Just fixing the authenticly broke ones won't work when the outlaws without regulation score.

[depakid]

11. He's simply stating the OBVIOUS

How that should (or will or will not) be done is another matter.

[dipsydoodle]

12. US recession 'may last into 2010'

US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke has warned Congress that without the right policies from the government, the US recession could last into 2010.

But he said if the Obama administration and the central bank can restore some measure of financial stability, 2010 could be a year of recovery.

Mr Bernanke made the comments to the Senate Banking Committee.

He also warned that the global nature of the downturn was a threat because exports would be hit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7908403.stm

2010, 2010, any increase on 2010.

[HereSince1628]

13. At least he stays on message, it may not be the right message, but he sure stays on it.

Let me give it a partisan kick and say "fix consumer confidence and growth and healthy banks will follow."

Let's just remember who Bernanke sees as his "clients."

[BirminghamExaminer]

14. Who the hell cares what that creepazoid Bernanke thinks? He's a has-been n/t

[w4rma]

15. Let these banks go down the drain and let new banks replace them.

This is America. America will create new banks to replace the old ones.

[unkachuck]

16. "...it has got to be on the back of a stabilization of the financial system..."

....the 'private' financial system?....a 'private' financial system that's proven itself corrupt and inept?....a 'private' financial system that's willing to accept taxpayer dollars but rejects taxpayer control?....a 'private' financial system that corrupts our politics and country?

....now why should I buy my neighbors' car without title to the vehicle?....screw private banking, they should receive no more public funds....they should survive on their own resources or go bankrupt....I do not wish to invest my hard-earned tax dollars in a corrupt crooked 'private' banking system....let private banks raise their own private funds for their own private 'bailout'....

....we the taxpayer should invest our public bailout dollars in a NEW banking system; a chain of US government owned banks and let the marketplace decide which banks have the publics' confidence and support....which banks deserve the publics' confidence through their actions....

"You know I was thinking, if we nationalize the banks,..."

....the great god of capitalism is frowning; he hates nationalization but he loves bankruptcy for the insolvent....don't nationalize tired junk banks, start anew!

[Klimmer777]

18. I hope it works out that way. N/T

Here's to hope!
:beer:

[Demeter]

19. K & R for the DU Commentary

There go the banking interests,killing the horse (economy) with the cart (banking system).

[Tansy_Gold]

29. Here's two of us

:hi:

(I'm wondering if any of these folks are lurkers over on SMW????)



TG

[Demeter]

31. Hi Tansy!

I am so not looking forward to the Weekend---this may be one year when Daylight Savings Time actually pays off by reducing the number of hours of horror.

[Alamuti Lotus]

20. Let the rich cover their ass, then we can stop caring.......

[girl gone mad]

21. It worked for Japan!

Oh, wait.. no... it didn't. Japan is worse off now than it was 25 years ago, by almost every measure.

[depakid]

25. No- the trouble was that they DIDN'T fix the banks

Zombie banks just lurched on for years. That hopefully is what the administration will come to realize is NOT the sort of policies that the US needs to be following.

[ProudDad]

22. The kind of growth this guy wants

and the kind that Obama's cabinet is so mindlessly pushing...

The continuation of the destructive, dead end industrial capitalist system...

Will kill us all...

Soon...

--------

This is the kind of growth we need, not the bullshit "economic growth" built on debt and the death of Community:

http://www.transitionus.org/

Power Down, Relocalize, Be happy!

[KakistocracyHater]

23. As usual they have it upside down

still have their Bizarro World view. I'd prefer they fix/repair everything the Banksters "own" instead. Cease all foreclosures, neighborhoods are safer & Americans needn't be forced into 3rd world conditions. Those jobs they outsourced-idiot corporations outsourced their consumers too. Follow the money, but China has been rather protectionist-just like Japan STILL IS, wherefore art thou, raging Republicans? cd music isn't let into Japan, I recall an expose' sometime in the 1990s where they pointed out that American brands in Japan are priced much higher (tariffs) to help out their own worker-base, the example was I think lipstick $10 here $36 in Japan, roughly.

The Chinese olympics were going to open the China markets, but didn't I guess? The State & local governments are privatizing as fast as they can-so then everything can have that terrible "User Agreement": they can, at any time, for any reason, change theconditions of this agreement, & do not require notifying the end-user.......our roads, our water, our electricity......

[alittlelark]

24. We can 'Fix' the banks by demanding full access to the BOOKS

Let's see how ugly it really is.


THEN we can try to figure a way out of the mess.



PS - ALL Upper Mgmt fired (possibly re-hired if they are not part of the scam)

Federal Accts /Lawyers look over all the books.

I Feel as though we are on the Titanic and the crew keeps telling me it's all gonna be fine.

[Mr. Hyde]

26. So, IOW, borrow money from the Chinese to give to the Fed so they can lend it back to us so we can

incure more debt so we can stimulate growth? That's the plan? Great.

[glitch]

28. If he means fix by investigating and prosecuting the corruption and fraud, it's a start.

If he means throw more money to the same people who caused this crisis, absolutely not.

Agreed, the more reasonable fix would be nationalize the banks and abolish the Fed. ASAP.

[sarcasmo]

30. Is this not the same thought as the trickle down bullshit that didn't work.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

32. between the devil and the deep blue sea

I have been hearing much from people who are losing their homes due to unreachable mortgages and people who have saved all their lives and lost a lot in their retirement. If you want to nationalize the banks you are the 'dinner for the dog' and if you fund the bank you are the enemy of the people. I think if taxpayers were told they could have a stake in the bank and private investors too it might work. 2 compartment.