Comments for The Post Tries to Get the Fed Off the Hook at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 9 out of 9 comments http://www.cepr.net Thu, 23 May 2013 09:18:14 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1189 Thanks, Andrew! - Rich2506 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:41:01 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1188 See if you can work in the housing price decline post-WWI: [url]http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/classic-case-shiller-hosuing-price-chart-updated/[/url] - AndrewDover Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:58:09 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1187 Greenspan testifying before Congress said, "Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief." Why should any intelligent person be shocked when the powerful make decisions that are inimical to their own long term self interest? Socrates used just this point to trash Thrasymachus' argument in The Republic in which Thrasymachus asserted (with cynical irony) that" justice" was nothing but the self interest of the stronger party, which could impose its will on the weaker. There follows a seeming digression in which Socrates forces Thrasymachus to concede that when the powerful imposed their ultimately misguided policy on the weaker they could not have been, strictly speaking, more powerful. At first reading, this seems to be a word game or merely semantics, but something deeper is going on here. The very definition and therefore one's understanding of "power" and powerful people is at stake. If they are not more powerful, then what are they? In a word, they are greedy. They were 'wage earners' first and bankers second. So, strictly speaking, when they made their ill-fated decisions, they were not bankers at all. "Powerful" as Thrasymachus used the term was an after the fact description of those who had succeeded in controlling other contending groups. It described whoever emerged on top, who then rewrote the rules to ensure the perpetuation of their domination. Utterly lacking is a sense of foresight concerning the viability and welfare of the whole. Guided solely by self interest against contending factions, such a person or group cannot attend to the welfare of the larger system of which it or (s)he is a part. In the present context, that would have been Greenspan's job. So his plaint was disingenuous--or so it would appear to anyone who had an education that included the fundamental ideas of western civilization. - diesel Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:54:45 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1186 We've got a fellow who's making some really [url]http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100626_Letters_to_the_Editor.html[/url] outlandish claims about how the Great Depression got started in the comments section after the printed letters to our paper. Anyone have the knowledge/expertise on that period to either post something or tell me so that I can post something tomorrow? Thanks! - Rich2506 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:59:37 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1184 One more reason why one should not trust a mainstream media corporation for true and accurate reporting. Let's play Jeopardy. What institution lists one of its responsibilities as "maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets" on its website? And the answer is (drum roll please) "What is the FED"? http://www.federalreserve.gov/generalinfo/faq/faqfrs.htm - MarkJ Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:56:53 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1183 The Fed was in charge of protecting consumers from predatory mortgage lenders? Who knew?! Now the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency is going to be housed in the Fed, but we're assured the Fed won't have any control over any of the agency's workings. So why house it in the Fed? Is D.C. running out of office space? Not that I think the conference committee members would lie to us.... - Queen of Sheba Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:09:50 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1182 It's like that coin Izzatzo, "Heads I win, tails you lose." - diesel Sat, 26 Jun 2010 07:19:30 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1181 So Baker claims that Greenspan and Bernanke had the necessary authority all along to stop the bubble and no more regulation is necessary. Wow, what a far left commie pinko position that is, the same one spewed by conservatives day in and day out against newly proposed regulations of all kinds. If government would just enforce existing regulations on the books, new ones aren't necessary. It's like the BP oil spill. The Dept of Interior had all the authority it needed to stop it but didn't, and Obama had the authority necessary to step in the control the damage after the fact but didn't. And whose playing this up big time? Rush Limbaugh and crowd, as Obama's Katrina for not using his authority. But when Dean Baker applies the same concept to the housing bubble disaster that conservatives wail about for the oil spill, the authority that could have stopped the bubble is conveniently sidestepped with "who could have known" excuses, and the authority to govern its aftermath is heralded as necessary to enact austerity programs undertaken by the same ones who enabled the bubble by ignoring it. - izzatzo Sat, 26 Jun 2010 05:39:37 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/Blogs/Beat-the-Press/the-post-tries-to-get-the-fed-off-the-hook#comment-1177 If there had been a Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in the years when the bubble was inflating it almost certainly would have been staffed entirely by people who shared the Greenspan-Bernanke view. The only way to prevent bubbles is to put restraints beyond the "choice" of authorities, by eliminating the institutions and practices which are at the root. - skeptonomist Sat, 26 Jun 2010 03:21:23 +0100