The Fed: Policy and Transparency
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-04-28/fed-policy-and-transparency
By tradition the Federal Reserve Board has always been a secretive body. Until yesterday. The chairman of the nation's central bank held a news conference - the first in the Fed's 98-year history. Chairman Ben Bernanke explained what the Fed has been doing to spur economic growth while keeping inflation in check. Some critics want the Fed to be less careful about inflation and more active in stimulating the economy to promote job creation. We'll talk about Bernanke's message in front of the cameras and what observers gleaned about the outlook for the U.S. economy and unemployment.
Guests
Martin Baily
senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution; former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration (1999-2001).
Binyamin Appelbaum
reporter, The New York Times.
Peter Morici
professor of International Business at the University of Maryland, former director of economics at the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Comments
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Can the panel talk about inflation vs. one-time price adjustments?
Diane,
Could you have your guests comment on the effect of house prices on inflation? Seems to me that when the house prices were increasing at double-digit rates, we should have called it inflation and increased interest rates. Now that house prices are nosediving, shouldn't we treat as deflation?
Why do all your guests not admit that the major cause of the decline of the U. S. economy is the greed of corporations by the out-sourcing of the jobs that Americans once did. When they send the jobs over seas and raise prices on the products that we buy, what can they expect?
It really angers me that the one guest would patronize us by saying that he is not in our situation but, he keeps an eye on what is going on around us. He doesn't feel or understand the situation of the average citizen that has no tax shelter and can't hide income.
It seems that most of those in charge in our government are loyal not to the people they are supposed to represent, the citizens of our great country but to their friends in charge of the banks, investment banks, and industries that stand to make the most money at the citizens expense by the policies the make and defend. A small circle of wealthy looking out for each other.
Diane,
I caught your show discussing the Fed about halfway through. To be honest, I've never heard so much obfuscation, or so many half-truths and lies in such a short period of time. One thing that caught my attention was the claim that oil speculators were driving the price of oil only by up a marginal amount. Nonsense. One of your guests quickly glossed over the fact that oil speculators don't use storage facilities. What he didn't say is that this allows them to trade at a very fast pace resulting in rapid price increases. If speculators were required to take delivery of the oil they traded, the cost wouldn't be what it is today.
I was also surprised at the comment that food prices aren't going up because so many Americans eat processed food. Say what? Do these people EVER go into a grocery store??
And whether they mentioned it or not, inflation in this country is measured without factoring in the cost of food or fuel.
These people don't live in the real world. Nor did they say anything that couldn't be rationally disputed by someone who does.
Amazing how few people seem to understand the federal reserve is NOT a government agency! Federal Express has that same word and most people know that is not a government agency. It may help our economy most if people were to understand the reality of what the federal reserve truly is and how it operates to provide currency for our national use.
In light of this reality the 'news conference' given by the federal reserve head was actually a long unpaid commercial for a private banking corporation. Funny the networks missed their opportunity to rake in the bucks for that one - how much do they charge for a commercial for anyone else?
Next time you have a panel, please invite someone on that isn't a Fed cheerleader. The Fed policies are certainly the primary reason why prices for food and energy are rising - speculators are simply trying to protect their purchasing power from the flood of new dollars being created. The canard that we have no inflation because we also have high unemployment is a joke. Remember the 1970s? We had high unemployment and high inflation; it was called stagflation. The Fed's policies are destroying the poor and the middle class while handing billions and even trillions out in welfare to the bankers. QE1 and QE2 are doing nothing more than allowing the government to continue its profligate spending on corporate welfare for the banks, pharma, military and various other special interests. Wake up.
Diane, you really need to have a free market economist on your show like Tom Woods, Peter Schiff, or just have Ron Paul on your show.
Fed shill #1 "I think Ron Paul is hurting our country right now" Fed shill #2 "I agree with that..."
This panel is seriously distorted. Ron Paul's bill to Audit the Fed received over 300 cosponsors and became a major part of the financial "reform" legislation. It forced the Fed to reveal that it has threw trillions to companies like Harley Davidson, Verizon, foreign banks in formerly unaccounted for bailouts. Thanks to this legislation, Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone was able to expose how the wife of John Mack (Morgan Stanley iBank's CEO) received over $200 million from the Fed! I am so glad that Ron Paul will be on the Tuesday's show to expose how the Fed is the greatest perpetrator of corporate welfare to the rich, while making the people (especially the poor and middle class) pay the price through inflation.
I hope Diane will let Ron Paul talk about the Fed and his views on foreign policy and advocacy for immediately ending the wars and bringing our troops home, instead of harping on about the non-issues of abortion and abolishing federal agencies and programs. They are non-issues because the President cannot act on them without the permission of Congress (the American people) and the SCOTUS.
Why must these otherwise cogent discussions be corrupted by ideologues from the right-wing propaganda mills? These outfits are a large part of why Americans are so misinformed on these topics. This is not an insoluble problem. It has been solved all around the world by countries that are free from this kind of propaganda.
Just like any other NPR Program, Diane Rehm show will not give voice to the people who do not get media coverage and cannot get a minute on the mike. We will talk about the Bernanke's Fed, Birth Certificate, Birds and the Bees, but not about what really happened on 9/11.
And Diane will not have enough courage to bring Architect Richard Gage as a guest.
++++here is some thing that we sent to Chris Matthew++++++++
Dear Chris Matthews
We respect you, you are a good journalist.
You are the only and lonely voice out there who questioned “The real reason/motive why we invaded Iraq”.
However, Shame On You!!!
You left journalism at home …. On the 10:31'th Min:Sec of your show ….you said
“9/11 Truth Movement claims that Bush brought WTC #7 HIMSELF”. And you repeated this a few times.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#42788195
You cannot see or find a Single Reference anywhere that anybody has made such a claim.
You also claimed that there is a similarity between the Obama Birthers and 9/11 Truth Movement. This is just NOT TRUE. 9/11 Truth People and Birthers are total opposite of each other.
Almost all of the 9/11 Truth Movement People are extremely informed, mostly lefty/progressive Democrats and did not give a diddly about where Obama was born.
Birthers on the other hand the most ignorant, nationalistic and mostly "racicst" (with a capital R) people.
All of your 9/11 Truth Movement comments are biased and you have never ever looked at the facts or evidence of the Sudden collapse of WTC #7.
Geraldo Rivera was much worse than you were ….
But since November 14, 2010 he is enlightened about WTC #7. Now he thinks the Collapse needs to be investigated.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#42788195
This so weird. I watched 2012.... even Hollywood know how buildings fall
http://m.npr.org/news/Arts+%26...
Prior to 9/11, if you'd asked most people what would happen if a jumbo jet crashed into a skyscraper, they'd have guessed the building would either stay standing or get knocked over sideways. The reality, now seared into a generation's consciousness, seems obvious after the fact. Even as it happened, you understood why it was happening -- how each floor's collapse was putting more weight on the floor below -- but the building's vertical fall wasn't what you expected. Nor was that enormous cloud of ash -- a visual that now shows up in all sorts of movies, but one that no one had considered until we were all horrified by it in real life.
This so weird. I watched 2012.... even Hollywood know how buildings fall
http://m.npr.org/news/Arts+%26...
Prior to 9/11, if you'd asked most people what would happen if a jumbo jet crashed into a skyscraper, they'd have guessed the building would either stay standing or get knocked over sideways. The reality, now seared into a generation's consciousness, seems obvious after the fact. Even as it happened, you understood why it was happening -- how each floor's collapse was putting more weight on the floor below -- but the building's vertical fall wasn't what you expected. Nor was that enormous cloud of ash -- a visual that now shows up in all sorts of movies, but one that no one had considered until we were all horrified by it in real life.
Bob Mondella of NPR
http://m.npr.org/news/Arts+%26+Life/128671240?page=1
Prior to 9/11, if you'd asked most people what would happen if a jumbo jet crashed into a skyscraper, they'd have guessed the building would either stay standing or get knocked over sideways. The reality, now seared into a generation's consciousness, seems obvious after the fact. Even as it happened, you understood why it was happening -- how each floor's collapse was putting more weight on the floor below -- but the building's vertical fall wasn't what you expected. Nor was that enormous cloud of ash -- a visual that now shows up in all sorts of movies, but one that no one had considered until we were all horrified by it in real life.
But, yet NPR refuses to cover the collapse of WTC #7
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