Steve Forbes to Newsmax: Obama, Bernanke Must Go

This is an excellent interview with Steve Forbes about the economy, the Federal Reserve, Obama, Bernanke and the Republican candidates for President.  Forbes comments on who he will most likely endorse:

“I’m looking over the whole field now. I’m very impressed with Governor Perry, so that’s where the wind’s blowing in my little world. I’ll be making a decision soon. 

“Maybe one or two other candidates might come in during the next couple of weeks, but I’ve certainly been impressed by what Governor Perry did. Perhaps he gets over-exuberant in what he says about the Federal Reserve, but he is right. The Fed has a lot to answer for.”

The people who came out and slammed Rick Perry about his comments on the Fed are finding out from person after person who understands the Fed that Perry was right about the Fed.  Forbes comments on Ben Bernanke are priceless:

Forbes is highly critical of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who has said any rise inflation is transitory. 

“Well, life is transitory,” Forbes observes. “What he’s doing in terms of manipulating the interest rate market is simply another form of price controls. That doesn’t work for very long. What he’s done with interest rate policy is subsidize government debt and discourage lending to small businesses. It’s distorted the market. He’s doing more harm than good. I wish he’d gone to Martha’s Vineyard with the president and stayed there.

“If Ben Bernanke was judged on how well he’s done his job, he would have resigned a long time ago. But in Washington, [be] a failure and you move upward.”

We need more interviews from people like Steve Forbes who understand what is happening with the economy and how to fix it instead of the rhetoric we see out Obama, Bernanke and the Obama Administration that spending more tax dollars is the way out of the bad economy which does not work.

Forbes comments on the main field for the Republican nomination are insightful and very much on the same page as many Republicans including myself.  Love his comments that Ron Paul should be running for the Fed.  Very good interview and well worth your time to watch.

Steve Forbes to Newsmax: Obama, Bernanke Must GoWednesday, 31 Aug 2011 06:03 PM
By Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter 

Former presidential candidate and Forbes magazine editor Steve Forbes tells Newsmax that President Obama’s planned economic reforms are “the definition of insanity” — repeating failed policies in the hopes that somehow they will become successful. 

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview, Forbes also declares that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should have resigned a long time ago, says Obama will be a one-term president, and looks for significant and positive reforms in Washington after the 2012 elections. 

He also predicts the United States will make an “astonishing” move and return to a gold standard in the next five years, and says he’s “very impressed” with Gov. Rick Perry and is leaning toward supporting him for the GOP presidential nomination.

Excerpt: Read more on Newsmax about this interview with Steve Forbes

Wall Street Journal: Perry's Public Service

The Wall Journal has more on Gov Perry's comments about the Fed and explains how it is right to bring the Fed into the public discussion in this campaign.  Regardless of what the Obama Media and some conservative writers are saying, Governor Perry is not like President GW Bush in many areas.  The key is that Perry was raised in West Texas and went to college at Texas A&M while Bush was sent by his parents back east to boarding school and then to Yale and eventually Harvard.  Right there you would see a huge difference down to how they view Wall Street and other issues.

The media trope of the week is that Mr. Perry is George W. Bush only more so, but he clearly isn't the same on monetary policy. Mr. Bush, who first appointed Mr. Bernanke, was an easy-money, weak-dollar President. He and his former economic advisers still don't understand how Alan Greenspan's policies at the Fed contributed to the credit and housing manias that led to the financial meltdown that caused the GOP's political undoing in 2008. 

Maybe it is being from Middle America, but we were aghast when the very liberal Senator Schumer (D-NY) recommended Bernanke to Bush to lead the Federal Reserve and he accepted him.  President Bush was a nice man but the people he chose to surround himself with in his second term didn't do him any favors.  He should have stayed away from Wall Street and Bush 41 for his economic advisors and gone to the Reagan side of the House.  In the last few days no one has highlighted the difference more than David Stockman who was the head of the Office of Management and Budget for President Reagan (1981-1985).  As we have pointed out on here in several articles, Stockman is adamant that the Fed should not be interfering in interest rates and that is a large part of the problem with the economy.

Note well that the main Fed dissenters from Mr. Bernanke's monetary policy have been from the regional Fed banks. These bank presidents are appointed by regional boards, not by Presidents. One reform to consider is whether the Fed's Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, should be changed to include more regional presidents who are better insulated from the political pressures of Washington.

Until reading that paragraph above, I wrongly assumed that the Fed's Open Market Committee was made up of all the President's of the regional Fed banks who are not appointed by any President.  Who sits on the Fed's Open Market Committee?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) consists of twelve members--the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis. The rotating seats are filled from the following four groups of Banks, one Bank president from each group: Boston, Philadelphia, and Richmond; Cleveland and Chicago; Atlanta, St. Louis, and Dallas; and Minneapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco. Nonvoting Reserve Bank presidents attend the meetings of the Committee, participate in the discussions, and contribute to the Committee's assessment of the economy and policy options.

All total there are only four regional Presidents of the Fed along with the President of the NY Fed.  So at the last Fed meeting, 3 out 4 regional Presidents were against Bernanke keeping interest rates so low into 2013 but were overruled by political appointees by the President.  If all regional Presidents plus the President of the New York fed voted together, they are still outnumbered by the political appointees of the Presidents 7-5.  After learning that, I watched the video from David Stockman on Schumer's  Fed Chair Bernanke.  Now our bad economy is making more sense and Governor Perry's words did hit their mark.

David Stockman: Fed Chair Ben Bernanke 'doesn't have a clue': 




As you watch the video, Stockman points out that we have no more people employed today than we did 12 years ago.  We have had stagnant employment for all those years.  What has the Fed done?  They have been keeping interest rates artificially low and now near zero instead of  allowing interest rates to settle on their own.  That has led to the Wall Street fat cats getting richer and the middle class losing much of their savings.  What savings they do have, they are receiving next to nothing in interest.  Finally someone is speaking out and honestly think that Governor Perry's choice of words is probably why this has gotten so much press for which we thank the Governor.

Merely by raising the Fed as a subject, Mr. Perry has sent a political signal to the folks at the Eccles Building to tread carefully as they conduct monetary policy in the coming months. This alone is a public service. Mr. Perry and the other GOP candidates should be more careful in their language, and more precise about the Fed's mistakes. But they shouldn't shrink from debating the subject of sound money that is so crucial to restoring American prosperity.

They hypocrisy of the this inside the beltway/east coast Obama media is stunning when you stop to think that the Vice President of the United States called the members of the Tea Party "terrorists" a few weeks ago.  Those words received very little press in comparison to the uproar of the Obama media on Perry's comments.

The Tea Party has been very vocal but they are not thugs like those who inhabit the SEIU and the Teamsters who don't think twice of beating up someone they don't like or who doesn't agree with them.  Maybe the media forgets the incident in St. Louis against the young black man from the Tea Party being roughed up by the SEIU thugs (video below).  How about the damage the SEIU did to the Wisconsin Capitol Building and all the trash they left around in Wisconsin during their sit-in and rallies against Governor Walker and the Legislature?  There is video after video of the thugs from the SEIU and Teamsters on You Tube attacking members of the Tea Party who were doing nothing except expressing their First Amendment rights.




Let's play the devil's advocate here:  If an individual(s) is using Fed monetary policy that weakens the dollar causing our economy to tank, is that person a patriot?  I sure don't think so.  Do I think that tanking the US monetary system with weakening the dollar is akin to an agenda that is treasonous -- guess you could me on the side of Perry on that one.  Since redistribution of wealth is a socialist agenda, that is exactly what we are seeing today with the rich getting richer and middle incomes stagnant and now falling with the much higher prices for groceries and gas.

How in good conscience could Obama and his economic advisers put a freeze on social security and civil service raises for two years while his people in the White House received an 8% raise this year?  To add insult to injury, the price of healthcare went up so social security recipients now make less than they did two years ago.  Yet the AARP continues to support this Administration?

We need Governor Perry to speak out so America understands what the Fed and others in this Obama Administration are doing.  Is he angry? You bet he is along with a lot of us out here in Middle America and the South who are being impacted by the EPA and other Government entities and see our budget for food and fuel increase dramatically under Obama.

If the East Coast liberals don't like how a Texan talks, that's too bad because those of us in flyover country don't like their liberal policies that have tanked this economy.  We will take a plain spoken Governor who tells it like it is any day of the week versus a weak-kneed President who is too lazy to do his job and always is touting his plan that we never see it.  Now we are going to see it in a few weeks or maybe a month or two. Maybe he will wave his magic wand and it will appear.  Guess it is taking the Goldman Sachs/academia people longer to write a plan than he expected.  (sarcasm) This milk toast President who has thrown so many people under the bus over his tenure when they might hurt his image should go back to be a community organizer because it is sure not working as President.

This editorial is written by someone who understands Texas after referencing the Texas Hill Country and Henry B. Gonzales. When you think back to the days in Congress where the Democrats were more conservative on financial policy, you realize why so many fiscal conservative Democrats have become Republicans like Rick Perry.  The Democrat Party of old with people like Sam Nunn, Sam Rayburn and Carl Albert doesn't exist after being taken over by extreme liberal progressives starting with the 2006 election of Harry Reid as Majority Leader of the Senate, Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and Obama as President two years later.  Unlike the Obama media, we will use the term liberal.

In 2010, we replaced Pelosi as Speaker with Republican John Boehner and 2012 we will replace Reid and Obama in order to get America back on the road to economy recovery.  Obama talks shared sacrifice as he flies around Country on Air Force One along with adding a new agency for jobs, and giving many of his White House staff 8% pay raises. Is Obama giving up traveling and his lavish White House parties as part of shared sacrifice?  Highly doubt it.   The shared sacrifice is only pertains to the American taxpayer as the free spending liberal progressive Democrats could care less about those in America's Heartland!

The media may not like Governor Perry's choice of words but he sure made a point about the poor leadership of Bernanke whose claim to fame was the CEO of Princeton's Economic Department before heading the Fed.  In other words, when an Obama person on the economy is not from Wall Street, they are from academia?  Sitting here shaking my head because east coast academia is filled with liberals and socialist -- conservatives need not apply.  This Schumer backed person is the one setting our Fed policy ignoring the comments of the regional Fed Presidents?  Think that sinking feeling just sank more!

• REVIEW & OUTLOOK

• AUGUST 18, 2011

Perry's Public Service
Behold, a hard-money Texas politician.

As the world's right-thinkers are denouncing Rick Perry for suggesting this week that Texans would get "pretty ugly" with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke if he guns the money supply any more between now and the 2012 election. His poor choice of words aside, the Texas Governor is right to put monetary policy front and center in the 2012 Presidential debate. 

Let's stipulate that Mr. Perry, in his first week on the Presidential stump, was wrong to use the words "almost treacherous, treasonous" in referring to Mr. Bernanke. Both of those words ought to be reserved for specific acts of betrayal against America, and the Fed chief is certainly a patriot. In particular, "treason" is the only crime specifically defined in the Constitution, which is something a tea party politician ought to learn. 

On the other hand, everybody knows Mr. Perry meant no literal harm and was indulging the irrational exuberance that is one of his trademarks. The faux-outrage from liberals who routinely refer to the tea party as "terrorists" shouldn't be taken seriously. 

The real news isn't the rhetorical gaffe but the substance and politics of Mr. Perry's demarche. Here we have a Presidential candidate, a Texas populist no less, laying out a position in favor of sound money. This is a bear walking on its hind legs. The ghosts of Wright Patman and Henry B. Gonzalez are howling in the Hill Country. 

....

Mr. Perry seems to appreciate that the Federal Reserve can't conjure prosperity from the monetary printing presses. His articulation needs some work, but we hope the Texan doesn't let media and other criticism deter him from pursuing the argument. The issue is crucial to understanding—and explaining to the American public—how the meltdown happened and why Americans are so unhappy with the current recovery. 

The Texas Governor has a better insight into middle-class economic anxiety than do most Washington-Wall Street elites. Americans intuitively understand that their after-inflation incomes haven't risen for a decade. Even when incomes rose during the growth years from 2003-2007, the gains were undermined by the rising cost of housing, as well as by rising food and energy prices. 

Then huge chunks of middle-class net worth were wiped out in the panic. And now, even as the recovery is supposedly underway, their meager salary increases are being washed away with another burst of commodity inflation caused by near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing. This is what happens when politicians and central bankers try to use monetary policy to compensate for the slow growth caused by bad fiscal and regulatory policies. 

The Texas Governor, or one of his advisers, may also have noticed that various economic sages are offering inflation as the solution to America's debt problem. Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff has suggested that an annual 4% to 6% rise in the price level over several years would do the trick. Assorted columnists are picking up the theme, and our guess is that the Obama Administration is privately on board. By all means, we need a debate in 2012 over Fed policy.
The U.S. also needs a debate over the Fed's political independence. In our view, that independence has been compromised over the last 15 years as Messrs. Greenspan and Bernanke allowed themselves to get too close to the White House and Treasury. The Fed's post-crisis interventions have put the central bank in the middle of decisions about fiscal policy and the allocation of credit. Mr. Bernanke sometimes seems to be a veritable arm of the Treasury, reinforcing its fiscal and regulatory agendas at every opportunity.
.... 

Excerpt:  Read More at the Wall Street Journal or view the video of Bartley Fellow, Charlie Dameron, on Texas Governor Rick Perry's liabilities as a GOP presidential candidate. 

Gov Perry takes on Fed Chair Bernanke About Printing Money to Help Obama

Finally a powerful voice has joined those telling Barnanke not to print more money as it would devalue the dollar more.  That seems to be the one course Bernanke sees to help Obama win on the economy is to print more money since giving it away with the stimulus didn't help with new jobs.  What it did do was keep Government people in jobs for another two years but states cannot afford those employees now with their tight budgets.

Personally think Bernanke would do anything to see Obama reelected.  Don't trust him even a little after three Regional Fed Chairs told him not to set a date on low interest rates.  He did it to make sure it came after the election.  It was so obvious what he was doing.  The Fed Chair should be non-partisan not a partisan hack for the Obama Administration which is what we see in Bernanke.  He was Schumer's recommendation which President Bush should have ignored and chosen his own person.

This comes on top of Rick Perry yesterday calling on Obama to put a freeze on regulations:

DES MOINES, IOWA – Texas Gov. Rick Perry today called on the Obama Administration to put a six-month freeze on new federal regulations in an effort to ease the burden on small businesses that continue to struggle under President Obama’s job-killing economic policies. The governor’s call was made at a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where he also highlighted his record of job creation in Texas and the importance of pursuing policies that will open doors to job growth and get America working again.  Read Full Article

With Governor Perry saying this in Iowa with Obama coming to the state, it sets up an interesting dynamic.  Right now Governor Perry is holding a business roundtable discussion in Dubueque -- same TV market that Obama will be speaking on his non-existent plan to create jobs.  Iowa is getting an early taste of what might end up being the Presidential race and knowing some Iowans, they are enjoying every minute.

Perry: Bernanke Almost 'Treasonous' for Printing MoneyTuesday, 16 Aug 2011 11:09 AM
By Dan Weil

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry isn’t happy about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. The Texas governor had harsh words for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke while campaigning in Iowa, ABCNews.com reports.

“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, “I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas,” Perry said. “Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- or treasonous in my opinion.” 

By playing politics, he meant that the Fed would be trying to help Obama. “If they print more money between now and this election, I would suggest that’s exactly what’s going on,” Perry said. 

Perry was answering a question from the audience when he made the statements. He went on to criticize Bernanke's policies under the Obama administration:

“We’ve already tried this. All it’s going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket and we cannot afford that. We have to learn the lessons of the past three years that they’ve been devastating. The President of the United States has conducted an experiment on the American economy for almost the last three years, and it has gone tragically wrong and we need to send him a clear message in November of 2012 that new leadership is coming.” 

Read more on Newsmax

Mike Pence, Republican Conference Chair, Introduces Bill to End the Federal Reserve's Dual Mandate

Common Sense Legislation once again from the Congressman from Indiana, Mike Pence. Why are we not surprised this dual mandate goes back to 1977 when Jimmy Carter was President? Two really bad President's in my lifetime -- Carter and Obama. Hope this is the last of the President's who don't seem to have a clue.

Word to the wise -- Republicans need to nominate a candidate who is intelligent, has experience in Government, can interview and speak very well without a teleprompter, know the subjects they are talking about including geography, and can appeal to independents as well as Republicans because without the independents we don't win in the general election.  Most independents are center right so that should be no problem for a good conservative candidate with Common Sense!

November 16, 2010

Pence Introduces Bill to End the Federal Reserve's Dual Mandate

“It’s time to return the Federal Reserve to the singular mission of protecting the fundamental strength and integrity of the dollar.”

Washington, DC - U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, released the following statement today as he introduced legislation to scale back the mandate of the Federal Reserve:

“Since 1977 the Fed has been forced to develop monetary policy that balances concerns for employment and inflation. The bill I’m introducing today will end that dual mandate and put the Fed back in the business of solely focusing on price stability and preventing inflation.

“The Fed’s QE2 decision earlier this month to print $600 billion, as an attempt to reduce unemployment, is another example of the failure of its dual mandate. By using monetary stimulus in this way, the central bank has actually taken steps that will prove inflationary in the long run. Printing money is no substitute for sound fiscal policy.

“The Federal Reserve should focus solely on controlling inflation. Unemployment is a matter of great seriousness to the American people, but it is the job of the Congress and the President to put forth pro-growth policies on taxes, to rein in government spending, and to reduce the regulatory burden in order to create an environment that is friendly to our nation’s job creators and that sustains long-term employment. The Fed’s full employment mandate has, too often, led to short-term fixes with long-term inflationary consequences that will not lead to job creation. It’s time to return the Federal Reserve to the singular mission of protecting the fundamental strength and integrity of the dollar.”