I Want to Live Like Common People — the Bernanke Version, That Is, Not the Shatner Version or the Pulp Version

Tim Cavanaugh | June 29, 2009

If you enjoyed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's uncomfortable appearance before the House last week, you should be ashamed of yourself.

That seems to be the view of one Bernanke defender, who posits that an indisputably great man, because he is indisputably great, should not be subject to scorn or ridicule while explaining his role in the Merrill Lynch purchase to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Says James Hamilton of EconBrowser:

It is one thing to have different views from those of the Fed Chair on particular decisions that have been made-- I certainly have plenty of areas of disagreement of my own. But it is another matter to question Bernanke's intellect or personal integrity. As someone who's known him for 25 years, I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension, not to mention IQ. His actions over the past two years have been guided by one and only one motive, that being to minimize the harm caused to ordinary people by the financial turmoil. Whether you agree or disagree with all the steps he's taken, let's start with an understanding that that's been his overriding goal.

Arguments like the one set up in those last two sentences cheat the point: Sure we can admit the possibility he may be wrong as long as we all agree beforehand that he's right. The rest of this passage is just greatness-stroking that is irrelevant to whether the elected representatives of the American people should be holding the Fed Chairman accountable. And as it happens, we may have an understanding that Bernanke's overriding goal is to help "ordinary people," but still disagree with the goal. It's not the business of any official to decide which people are ordinary enough to merit help from government entities (and I don't think it's clear that a single ordinary folk has in fact been spared any harm by the Fed's actions).

Calculated Risk makes the more modest claim that Bernanke has tried to get liquidity into the market, and that it's not exactly his fault the Fed is now running AIG (and prefaces that with a much-longer recitation of Ben's Boners). Last week's testimony was bracing stuff, with some wonderful surprise evidence, and if you think the attacks on Bernanke have been "very personal" I have to point out that politics ain't bean bag. Being in the top percentile of integrity-filled intellectuals is no bar to tough public questioning. Nor should it be.

Comments

|6.29.09 @ 11:11PM|#

Although my comment has nothing to do with the actual content of the article, I have to say: I'm stoked to see a reference to the brilliant Shatner/Folds "Has Been" album. I can totally get behind that.

$|6.29.09 @ 11:32PM|#

Shatner thread? Bernanke is making the face.

You know, the culture lag between the original airing of Shatner's "Rocket Man" and its becoming common enough camp currency to get mocked on Family Guy almost perfectly spans the period from the Shah's overthrow to 9/11.

I blame the Fed.

|6.29.09 @ 11:40PM|#

Actually, dollar sign, you'd be surprised how few people even got that reference on Family Guy. Also, do a survey of people you know and see how many know about The Transformed Man. Almost none.

Shit, people don't even know Spizz Energi's "Where's Captain Kirk".

Franklin Harris|6.29.09 @ 11:49PM|#

You'll never live like common people.
You'll never do whatever common people do.
You'll never fail like common people...

Actually, Bernanke just might fail like common people.

Never mind.

hmm|6.29.09 @ 11:54PM|#

...that being to minimize the harm caused to ordinary people by the financial turmoil.

If he's so fucking smart how is it people I know from ditch diggers to lowly state college professors saw the housing bubble collapse years ahead of him. Or did he intentionally continue to drive up housing? A whole year passed and no screaming the end is coming or calm assertion that the shit may hit the fan. All we got was all's well. I still think the whole situation was scripted off of Kevin Bacon in Animal House

Never mind the run up the shit that happened after the collapse was atrocious, especially the narrowing separation of the fed from politics (ya right). He deserves the opportunity to clarify himself.

Some dude|6.29.09 @ 11:55PM|#

His actions over the past two years have been guided by one and only one motive, that being to minimize the harm caused to ordinary people Big Bankers by the financial turmoil.

Fixed that.

dfd|6.30.09 @ 12:18AM|#

Yeah, some dude's got it right. Between him and Paulson, Congress and the Presidents, the one overriding goal has been to eliminate the unfathomable (to them) prospect of their friends on Wall Street being wiped out. That was the "financial crisis" they all fretted over and nothing more. Rotting in hell (if I believed in it) would be far too good for these fucking thieves. Water-boarding would be a good start though.

|6.30.09 @ 1:32AM|#

it it is another matter to question Bernanke's intellect or personal integrity.

The man is the head of a counterfeiting syndicate. There is no question at all about his personal integrity: he has none.

-jcr

Someone Who Doesn\'t Want to L|6.30.09 @ 1:34AM|#

Jason, agreed! That album is amazing. The "Common People" cover is great. "You'll Have Time" is incredible. The college station where I went to grad school used to play "You'll Have Time" and I was in awe.

|6.30.09 @ 1:39AM|#

"The Transformed Man"

'Spleen' was a favorite at the college radio station I DJed at.

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DJF|6.30.09 @ 4:51AM|#

"""I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension, not to mention IQ. """"

That must mean that the 99.9% in Washington are far far worse then even I thought since Bernanke is nothing but a lying thief who does nothing that is not in the interests of this political and banking bosses.

Some Guy|6.30.09 @ 7:13AM|#

I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension

That's like being the nicest guy on the cell block in a supermax.

|6.30.09 @ 7:27AM|#

I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension

The textbook example of damning with faint praise.

|6.30.09 @ 7:46AM|#

Hamilton's defense of Bernanke has the same tone as those who defend Michael Jackson. "Even though he did very strange things, he loved children and was a great artist".

Alan Vanneman|6.30.09 @ 8:27AM|#

Wait a minute, goddamn it! I do the Shatner jokes, OK? I do the Shatner jokes!

|6.30.09 @ 8:47AM|#

Bernanke is the single best person for the job. We know this because he *has* the job.

Kind of like Timmay, over at Treasury.

Rich|6.30.09 @ 8:58AM|#

"I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension, not to mention IQ."

Maybe he should take a break from economics and solve some other pressing problem.

|6.30.09 @ 9:00AM|#

Actually, dollar sign, you'd be surprised how few people even got that reference on Family Guy.

*Whoosh* I had no idea until now. I like learning stuff.

|6.30.09 @ 9:00AM|#

"Whether you agree or disagree with all the steps he's taken, let's start with an understanding that that's been his overriding goal."

My goal is a country where everyone has everything. So I'm a genius too, eh?


or, The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

booya|6.30.09 @ 9:05AM|#

Its dem Jewz, I tell ya! Dat Jooish Caball!

|6.30.09 @ 9:11AM|#

Sorry, but there's no way Bernake can top Shatner in covering "Common People."

Fluffy|6.30.09 @ 9:21AM|#

It is one thing to have different views from those of the Fed Chair on particular decisions that have been made-- I certainly have plenty of areas of disagreement of my own. But it is another matter to question Bernanke's intellect or personal integrity.

This is a disgusting statement.

There's no way to have a "difference of opinion" about whether or not Bernanke can break the law at will without challenging his integrity.

And since the law he appears to have broken involves conspiracy and deception, we can't just take his word for it when he says he didn't do it. We have to question him in an adversarial way.

|6.30.09 @ 9:36AM|#

His actions over the past two years have been guided by one and only one motive, that being to minimize the harm caused to ordinary people by the financial turmoil.

This is such complete and utter bullshit it is impossible to in any way take this clown seriously.

And- I would say Bernanke has pretty much laid to rest the myth of the "politically independent" Fed.

|6.30.09 @ 9:57AM|#

Why do ass-kissers always get a forum? That infuriates me. Only hypocrites and pedophiles piss me off more than ass-kissers.

|6.30.09 @ 10:18AM|#

I would place him above 99.9% of those recently in power in Washington on the integrity dimension, not to mention IQ.

So, Hamilton knows the IQ and "integrity quotient" of at least 1000 people "recently in power in Washington" and somehow his friend is tops in both categories.

This guy must have an easier time than I do when his wife asks him if she is the most beautiful woman in the world.

|6.30.09 @ 11:22AM|#

We cannot let the people see what assets we bought or from whom we bought them. The people need to be kept in the dark and protected from the details of seeing how we are saving them, but just trust me. this is what freedom is all about. You don't have to worry about it. We are politically independent and we are only giving hundreds of billions to certain banks in order to help thr common man. I have a high IQ!

|6.30.09 @ 11:33AM|#

Shatner's version of Common People is pretty great, but I'm a huge fan of the Archie version

Archie In… A Different Class!

Salvius|6.30.09 @ 1:39PM|#

His actions over the past two years have been guided by one and only one motive, that being to minimize the harm caused to ordinary people by the financial turmoil.

So not only does the end justify the means, but the desired end justifies the means, even if you completely fail to achieve it?