The American Way - Rewarded for Failure

It was "business as usual" for Wall Street Banksters this week as President Obama reappointed Wall Street's best friend, Ben Bernanke, as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

It looks like rewarding someone for short-run success, no matter how fleeting, has become the American way. This is true with regard to Wall Street bonuses and is apparently true with regard to the Federal Reserve chairman. Apparently Mr. Bernanke is being rewarded for continuing to give the "money addicts" on Wall Street all the money they need, no matter how many trillions of dollars it is.

No one seems to care anymore about what the consequences will be 5 or 10 or 20 years down the road of poorly thought actions. Apparently most Americans just live from episode to episode of their favorite "reality" program and ignore actual reality. Reminds me of how the Roman emperors kept the masses happy with bread and circuses.

The Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke has made numerous mistakes. Ome mistake is to focus solely on inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index or CPI which is "adjusted" by the government. The Fed has completely ignored the truly dangerous type of inflation - asset price inflation.

Housing and stock prices earlier this decade were rising too far, too fast and the rise was all due to borrowed money. But the Fed ignored it - apparently the Fed believed the debt would never have too be repaid.

In another example of Mr. Bernanke's muddled thinking, he has also put the entire blame for the financial crisis not on Wall Street and/or Washington, but elsewhere.

Mr. Bernanke puts the blame for the financial crisis squarely on the "global savings glut." It wasn't the US financial system which caused the problem, but savers around the world which caused the problem.

Yep, it wasn't United States that is to blame, it was some poor farmers in rural China who are saving meager amounts for their families' futures who caused all this financial chaos. Amazing!

And Mr. Bernanke continues making mistakes. What he is doing by monetizing massive amounts of US Treasury debt (and hiding it) will have dire consequences for the US Dollar and the economy down the road.

Here is the latest "game" being played by Ben Bernake and the Federal Reserve:

1) Foreign central banks sell US government agency debt out of their account.

2) The Federal Reserve buys those US government agency bonds with "funny money" created out of thin air.

3) Foreign central banks then use that very same "funny money" to buy US Treasuries at the next government auction.

4) Then the Fed and the financial media proclaim to everyone - "Look, all is well - look at the tremendous global demand for US Treasuries at the auction!

The numbers for global demand at US Treasuries auctions is as phony as a $3 bill. But it "looks" good and so Wall Street plays along and kicks the problem down the road.

Is it any wonder that both the Fed and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner are so dead-set against having a public audit of the Fed's books. Who knows what else will be discovered?