New at Reason

Julian Sanchez | October 27, 2005

Jeff Taylor is rationally exuberant about the departing Fed chairman's legacy.

Comments

Francis Englund|10.27.05 @ 8:03AM|#

He's irreplaceable. This Bernanke guy may be an anti-inflation fiscal conservative, but you just can't run the Fed if you've never screwed Ayn Rand.

William Oberst|10.27.05 @ 8:04AM|#

I guess the crash-and-burn lifestyle of a 'chairman of the Federal Reserve' finally caught up with the guy.

Lily Putnam|10.27.05 @ 8:06AM|#

Wow. He's quitting at the same time as the American economy.

|10.27.05 @ 8:31AM|#

He's smart -- quitting while his popularity is still high.

Of course, he's old too... if he was a young guy I'd be worried.

|10.27.05 @ 9:15AM|#

Greenspan's smart. Leave BEFORE Toto pulls the curtain back (Greenspan knows what the flattening yield curve means). The poor schlub at the controls when that happens will be the one who catches the flak.

That's not to say that Greenspan couldn't have been worse, but see what you think about the economy in 18-20 months - that's the time frame for cause and effect in Fed policy. If we tank in that time, it won't be Bernanke's fault.

|10.27.05 @ 9:37AM|#

Greenspan invented a third option, the Jedi mind trick

Does that make Ron Paul in his role on the House Banking Committee Watto?

"We have 15,000 Federal Reserve Notes."

"Federal Reserve Notes? Federal Reserve Notes are no good here! I need something more real."

*Greenspan waves hand*

"Federal Reserve Notes will do fine."

"No they won't! What, do you think you're some kind of Jedi waving your hand around like that? I'm a libertarian, mind tricks won't work on me, only money!"

|10.27.05 @ 10:03AM|#

I see that the Onion's street commenters are now posting here.

dhex|10.27.05 @ 10:52AM|#

better them than the freepers, thoreau. thankfully, the freepers aren't smart enough to understand things like money and economics and math so we're safe...for now!

|10.27.05 @ 10:59AM|#

dhex-

I meant that comment literally. Click on the names of the first 3 posters and you'll see what I mean.

dhex|10.27.05 @ 11:18AM|#

oh. dear.

thank zog it's thursday, eh?

|10.27.05 @ 10:25PM|#

Wonderful - all we need to do to ensure endless prosperity is pump endless quantities of credit into an already heavily-leveraged economic system, thereby generating humungous mortgage finance and liquidity bubbles! We never would have realized this without you, Al!

Hey, Jeff ol' pal - there's a reason we're looking at $60 oil and $475 gold right now, and it's directly tied to the Fed's inflationary policies of the last 10 years under Greenspan's watch. His paranoia about deflation and unwillingness to take the political hit involved in a recession led directly to the massive mess the US economy is now facing - a gutted manufacturing sector, unbelievable public and private debt loads and an economy that produces almost nothing tangible but consumes everything in sight. It doesn't matter a good goddam whether Bernanke's an "inflation hawk" or not - he's going to have to continue to raise rates, since the game of issuing endless Treasury debt at negative real interest rates is just about played out.