Friday, January 13, 2012

How Is It Possible The Fed's Image Can Be Tarnished Further?

Dean Baker.--SS

How Is It Possible The Fed's Image Can Be Tarnished Further?:

At this point it should be universally known that the Federal Reserve Board has been guilty of disastrous incompetence. It allowed an $8 trillion housing bubble to grow unchecked. The inevitable collapse of this bubble has produced the worst downturn since the Great Depression and ruined the lives of tens of millions of people across the country.

This is why it was striking to read a Washington Post headline for an article on newly released Fed transcripts that showed that Greenspan and the rest of the Fed were completely oblivious to the bubble and the risks it posed to the economy as late as 2006:

"Fed's image tarnished by newly released transcripts."

At this point, the Fed should not have an image that could possibly be tarnished further. If its record had been reported accurately, everyone would be well aware of its incredible incompetence as a manager of the economy.

btw, as noted in the article, many of the people at these Fed meetings are still in top policy making positions. This shows that the U.S. economy still produces good-paying jobs for people without skills.

Addendum: This is what people who were not Greenspan sycophants were saying at the time. And, here's another blast from the past.



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