Bernanke: Without Fed, Financial Crisis Would Have Been 'Much Worse'

[NACBA]

Ben S. Bernanke, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the 2008 financial crisis would have been “much worse” without the central bank’s actions to avert a global economic depression.

“There’s plenty of evidence that when the financial system collapses, the rest of the economy collapses as well,” Bernanke said in a BBC radio interview with Mervyn King, who was governor of the Bank of England during the crisis. “By stabilizing the financial system, we avoided much worse, persistently bad consequences.”

In the months after the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers in the world’s largest bankruptcy, the S&P 500 lost about one-third of its value as investors dumped stocks and scrambled for safe havens. The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 10 percent in the ensuing recession.

The Fed responded by cutting interest rates to record lows, followed by several bond-buying programs known as “quantitative easing” that pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy. Meanwhile, the U.S. government bailed out banks and automobile companies as part of the effort to avoid another depression.

http://www.Newsmax.com/Finance/Bern...sis-money/2014/12/29/id/615430/#ixzz3NIYBGsSq

 

[Origanalist]

Yes, I suppose so. But it would have been over and done and lessons really learned.

 

[Ronin Truth]

How about without the Fed since 1913, Ben?

 

[Danke]

Kicking the can down the road.

 

[ILUVRP]

when the glass-steagall act of 1933 was killed by the gramm/leach/bliley ( signed by clinton ) act in 1999 this triggered the crisis .

after the crisis another bill was passed limiting the banks to speculate , but now that bill has been gutted , we will have another crisis and it will be much worse than the last one .

 

[PRB]

I don't know about you, and I don't care what Ben Bernanke says, but I'm looking in my bank account and newspaper bank advertisement and I don't see any global hyperinflation, therefore hyperinflation is a fake alarmist hoax invented by gold sellers to scam people out of hard earned money.

 

[PRB]

when the glass-steagall act of 1933 was killed by the gramm/leach/bliley ( signed by clinton ) act in 1999 this triggered the crisis .

after the crisis another bill was passed limiting the banks to speculate , but now that bill has been gutted , we will have another crisis and it will be much worse than the last one .

take your pro-regulation position somewhere else, this is a LIBERTY forum and we're advocates of LESS government. Thank you.

 

[ILUVRP]

take your pro-regulation position somewhere else, this is a LIBERTY forum and we're advocates of LESS government. Thank you.

i guess you want to keep bailing out the banks , so be it , i don't know where you belong , could you be a banker .

i am sick of bailing out the banksters

 

[acptulsa]

Yes, I suppose so. But it would have been over and done and lessons really learned.

Kicking the can down the road.

When you say the correction would have been more rough, but much shorter, and long since done already (instead of barely beginning), I agree with you. But I do not concede the bubble would have grown fat and burst without the Fed's rubber bubble gum money policies helping it happen in the first place.

when the glass-steagall act of 1933 was killed by the gramm/leach/bliley ( signed by clinton ) act in 1999 this triggered the crisis .

after the crisis another bill was passed limiting the banks to speculate , but now that bill has been gutted , we will have another crisis and it will be much worse than the last one .

Private profits and socialized risks are not exactly a combination designed to limit reckless behavior, are they?

I don't know about you, and I don't care what Ben Bernanke says, but I'm looking in my bank account and newspaper bank advertisement and I don't see any global hyperinflation, therefore hyperinflation is a fake alarmist hoax invented by gold sellers to scam people out of hard earned money.

You concede hyperinflation is harmful to people but refuse to concede that regular old inflation is just as harmful, but more of a slow torture than a short, sharp shock?

Well, that's a sufficiently short-sighted conclusion to be called an incredibly stupid one.

 

[twomp]

take your pro-regulation position somewhere else, this is a LIBERTY forum and we're advocates of LESS government. Thank you.

Are you at the RONPAULforums? IF so, you would know that RON PAUL was against repealing glass-steagal. Maybe you should take your banker sucking posts somewhere else?

 

[PRB]

i guess you want to keep bailing out the banks , so be it , i don't know where you belong , could you be a banker .

i am sick of bailing out the banksters

just because I don't want regulation, I must be for bailing out banks? what kind of logic is that?

That's like saying if I don't want to raise minimum wage, I must want to keep giving out welfare. Or if I don't want prison for drug abuse I must want taxpayer paid rehab. WTF is wrong with you?

 

[PRB]

You concede hyperinflation is harmful to people but refuse to concede that regular old inflation is just as harmful, but more of a slow torture than a short, sharp shock?

Well, that's a sufficiently short-sighted conclusion to be called an incredibly stupid one.

No, hyperinflation is not just as harmful as regular old inflation, that's like saying being in debt for $10K is the same as being in debt $10M.

 

[TheTexan]

Thanks Bernanke. I really appreciate all your hard work printing all that money and using it to buy up assets at a price noone else was willing to pay.

 

[ILUVRP]

just because I don't want regulation, I must be for bailing out banks? what kind of logic is that?

That's like saying if I don't want to raise minimum wage, I must want to keep giving out welfare. Or if I don't want prison for drug abuse I must want taxpayer paid rehab. WTF is wrong with you?

the derivatives market value is over $700 trillion , with the banksters gambling we are now on the hook for trillions , if you don't care about that then keep your head in the sand , when people are allowed to put me on the hook i want them regulated . i look at it like when a thief is going to steal from me i want a law ( regulation ) against it .

like ron paul i am against ALL bail-outs .

 

[randomname]

There are plenty of regulations already against all the criminal manipulation and fraud that has been going on, they're just not being enforced. The regulatory agencies are completely captured by the banks themselves. The banks get away with a slap on the wrist and a fine, which along with bribes is considered a "cost of doing business". I have yet to see a banker go to jail.

 

[Ronin Truth]

"Much worse" for the government? Who really gives a crap?


(Besides Matt and Zippy, that is.)

 

[Acala]

It is impossible to argue against the statement that "it would have been worse if we had not done X". People say that about every war, every economic intervention, every theft of liberty, everything.

 

[Ronin Truth]

It is impossible to argue against the statement that "it would have been worse if we had not done X". People say that about every war, every economic intervention, every theft of liberty, everything.

So why even bother? Just turn on your heel and walk away sadly shaking your head over the idiocy of it all.

 

[PRB]

the derivatives market value is over $700 trillion

Nobody's forced to play.

, with the banksters gambling we are now on the hook for trillions , if you don't care about that then keep your head in the sand

I do care, my answer isn't regulation.

, when people are allowed to put me on the hook i want them regulated . i look at it like when a thief is going to steal from me i want a law ( regulation ) against it .

like ron paul i am against ALL bail-outs .

I'm against bailouts too, good to know we agree on something.

 

[ILUVRP]

Nobody's forced to play.

but we are forced to pay , i will go to vegas and bet 6/6 at 30:1 , when i lose i will send you the bill .



I do care, my answer isn't regulation.

many people don't like regulations , but do not offer what they would do , just pay for their loses i guess .



I'm against bailouts too, good to know we agree on something.

agree