Good news, even Jon Stewart thinks Ben Bernanke is funny.
Not funny ha-ha, but funny oh-crap. Below is a clip of Jon Stewart eviscerating The Ben Bernank with his own words. Recently Bernanke gave a 60 minute interview which he blew smoke up people's asses and got away with it. Since we no longer have any real journalists left in this country, Stewart decided to tackle the subject by himself.
Now there are a few problems with this clip, but overall Stewart is on the right track.
First, it is possible that Bernanke is actually telling the truth about the latest round of bond purchases as not actually having to print money. This is because the reserve bank holdings are gigantic, they are now exceeded over a trillion dollars. This is money that is collectively shared within the Reserve system among the 12 regional reserve banks. Normally when the economy is humming along and credit is being dispensed liberally (think dot com bubble, real estate bubble) the reserve moneys are under 100 billion - right now they are over one trillion. So Bernanke is actually using the existing reserves. Problem is, those reserves were originally created out of thin air. Although it is unclear that all of today's reserves are comprised of action taken during QE1 (when Bernanke purchased over 1.25 Trillion dollars of mortgage backed securities), one could reasonably assume so.
Secondly and this is more of a personal thing, I could not stand the laughter. Stewart finally touches on the most critical aspect of America's economy and people are laughing. What the hell is so funny, may I ask? What is so funny when a centrally planned bank has the power to create money? To whom is this even remotely humorous? Because whenever Bernanke creates money the bottom 20% of America gets demolished. We are talking Great Depression style pain. A recent study by JP Morgan suggests that the bottom 20% spend over half of their income on food and energy. Guess where the price increases show up when money is printed? You guessed it, food and energy. Of course Bernanke can continue lying by pointing to the government created CPI data that suggests price inflation is stable, but nothing could be further from the truth. CPI is manipulated and uses advanced hedonics and substitutions to hide true price increases and even despite all that recent CPI data suggests energy prices are climbing. Don't believe me? Look at how much you are paying for gas and realize that as of this writing, crude oil is trading at $88/barrel, almost triple from 2008.
Kudos to Stewart for tackling the subject, but none of this is a laughing matter. Perhaps Stewart himself does not realize the immense harm being done by money creation as can be deduced by his sarcastic "fine, print money", but it is even more tragic to realize that his audience finds this topic "humorous".
Now there are a few problems with this clip, but overall Stewart is on the right track.
First, it is possible that Bernanke is actually telling the truth about the latest round of bond purchases as not actually having to print money. This is because the reserve bank holdings are gigantic, they are now exceeded over a trillion dollars. This is money that is collectively shared within the Reserve system among the 12 regional reserve banks. Normally when the economy is humming along and credit is being dispensed liberally (think dot com bubble, real estate bubble) the reserve moneys are under 100 billion - right now they are over one trillion. So Bernanke is actually using the existing reserves. Problem is, those reserves were originally created out of thin air. Although it is unclear that all of today's reserves are comprised of action taken during QE1 (when Bernanke purchased over 1.25 Trillion dollars of mortgage backed securities), one could reasonably assume so.
Secondly and this is more of a personal thing, I could not stand the laughter. Stewart finally touches on the most critical aspect of America's economy and people are laughing. What the hell is so funny, may I ask? What is so funny when a centrally planned bank has the power to create money? To whom is this even remotely humorous? Because whenever Bernanke creates money the bottom 20% of America gets demolished. We are talking Great Depression style pain. A recent study by JP Morgan suggests that the bottom 20% spend over half of their income on food and energy. Guess where the price increases show up when money is printed? You guessed it, food and energy. Of course Bernanke can continue lying by pointing to the government created CPI data that suggests price inflation is stable, but nothing could be further from the truth. CPI is manipulated and uses advanced hedonics and substitutions to hide true price increases and even despite all that recent CPI data suggests energy prices are climbing. Don't believe me? Look at how much you are paying for gas and realize that as of this writing, crude oil is trading at $88/barrel, almost triple from 2008.
Kudos to Stewart for tackling the subject, but none of this is a laughing matter. Perhaps Stewart himself does not realize the immense harm being done by money creation as can be deduced by his sarcastic "fine, print money", but it is even more tragic to realize that his audience finds this topic "humorous".
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