The Fed, the enabler
AlterNet
by Robert Kuttner
09/24/07
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, like Alan Greenspan before him, has acted to keep a credit crunch from turning into a depression. The stock market liked the Fed’s half-point rate cut, and experts have generally praised Bernanke’s determination to do whatever it takes to contain the crisis. But the turbulence is far from over, and in a sense the Fed is cleaning up its own mess. For more than two decades, the Federal Reserve has been prime enabler of a dangerously speculative economy. If we dodge this bullet without addressing the deeper threats, there will be more bullets to come. Here’s the basic problem: Since the late 1970s, financial institutions have invented exotic ways of extending credit and taking big speculative risks...
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/63399/
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernanke
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Kuttner
by Robert Kuttner
09/24/07
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, like Alan Greenspan before him, has acted to keep a credit crunch from turning into a depression. The stock market liked the Fed’s half-point rate cut, and experts have generally praised Bernanke’s determination to do whatever it takes to contain the crisis. But the turbulence is far from over, and in a sense the Fed is cleaning up its own mess. For more than two decades, the Federal Reserve has been prime enabler of a dangerously speculative economy. If we dodge this bullet without addressing the deeper threats, there will be more bullets to come. Here’s the basic problem: Since the late 1970s, financial institutions have invented exotic ways of extending credit and taking big speculative risks...
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/63399/
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernanke
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Kuttner
rudkla - 25. Sep, 11:04
