Our new numbers guru, Ben Bernanke, gave another day's testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee today (he's been Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board for about two weeks now, replacing Alan Greenspan).... and it was nice to see a few different faces on C-SPAN other than the monsters of the Judiciary Committee.
I also wanted to see how the new guy could tread water on monetary policy in the face of the political wankers. And my goodness, the wankers were whining!!!
Senators Bunning (D-KY) and Schumer (D-NY) whined about China's lack of trade...but IMHO, passing isolationist legislation as our "only option" is maybe, just maybe, a short-sighted response.
Senators Sarbanes (D-MD) and Shelby (R-AL) whined about the minimum capital reserve formulas implemented by the Federal Reserve Board being too soft on banks.
My first impressions of Bernanke are positive...perhaps he's a little less cerebral than recent Greenspan, but I'm sure some of Greenspan's vocabulary came from his decades of saying the same thing every six months or so: "fiscal restraint and savings good; trade barriers bad." It takes some creativity to repeat yourself for twenty-odd years without wearing a little thin.
Anyhow, Bernanke did say something that has me thinking: in response to a question from Sen. Carper (D-DE) about the American public's motivation to increase its savings, Ben made two points. The first was the usual late '90s schtick about the rising housing market substituting for personal savings, but then he also advocated advances "on the financial literacy front." In other words, let's teach people how to manage money and get involved in the financial markets; let them be informed consumers of financial products and services, so that they can make good choices.
-- Bingo! --
I think he's absolutely right on this one. Let's see if he can keep it up.
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