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Is there a more thankless job that the one Ben Bernanke has right now? First the Fed begins cut rates slowly, in an orderly fashion. Critics complain that the US is slipping into the recession and the fed has already blown it by moving to slow. Then after Monday’s plunge, the Fed immediately cuts 75 basis points. Then the news about the rogue trader surfaces and suddenly the Fed is accused of acting too quickly and being a chicken little.
Which is it? Are they too slow or too fast?
- John
January 27th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place because of Greenspan - but he’s not been the most “smooth” acting Fed. I would say:
- He was too slow in the beginning
- He then went too fast with too big a cut
He’s like my Dad’s driving.
But what do I know - I can’t imagine the complexity of his job. Maybe he saw something that pushed the 75bps.
January 27th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
My personal opinion is that the power of the Fed to actually stop/prevent a recession is severely overestimated. Obviously they could make things much worse if they were raising rates now, but I don’t think even if they’d had a crystal ball and cut to 3.5% in July, the economy would be much different than it is now…
John
January 28th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Well look at how many page hits those blogs that incessantly whine about Fed get. Maybe you guys should stop with the winning trade ideas and get on the bandwagon.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Brig,
Thank you, Thank you, thank you !
Someone that finally gets it!
What I “think” means nothing. It’s what was actually done and acted upon.
Thanks again.
Dave