Well it’s not the Medal of Freedom for George Tenet, but reappointing Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman is another example of how Goingbackwardville rewards failure to keep Movingforwardville in line.
Ben Bernanke totally missed the housing bubble. He didn’t raise interest rates enough in 2006, so as to please his White House masters. The subsequent crash of world financial markets led to a “rescue” involving the Fed more or less giving up its independence to become a SIV for the US Treasury. We still don’t know the extent of toxic assets losses, and Bernanke himself has refused to engage in the kind of transparency that would prevent these debacles from happening in the future.
Other than Greenspan (and Bernanke sat at his right hand throughout the past decade), it’s hard to think of a worse Fed Chairman or one less deserving of reappointment. But he’s in Wall Street’s pocket as much as the President who appointed him, so why be surprised?
Gorilla says: “Wonder when success will be rewarded? That will be real news!”
