I've said before that this recession is going to be a protracted one, and Bernanke doesn't inspire me one bit. Here's why: 2/3rds of our economy is based on consumer spending. No cheap credit means that consumers can't spend beyond their means--certainly not like they did in the good years. No such spending means, quite simply, that the economy can never recover to where it was before the poop hit the paddles.
To actually improve things, we may have to resort to the abhorred, archaic practice of actually producing things...you know, that ridiculous method of economic activity the backwards 1/3rd of our economy still employs.
Maybe historians will call Ben Bernanke the next Herbert Hoover. "Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over." I mean, I certainly hope not, but the empirical data upon which he is basing his assessment is terribly sketchy.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
