What Is This World Coming To?

This just in: “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday a recession is possible and policymakers are “fighting against the wind” in trying to steady a shaky economy, according to a report by the AP.“

As chairman of the Fed, Bernanke there can be no doubt that he is aware that his words become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Either that, or he is an idiot, and I don’t believe that to be the case. He had his predecessor’s record as a guide.

Alan Greenspan made a similar forecast in 1992, triggering a pre-election recessionary period that George H. W. Bush publicly blamed for his loss to Bill Clinton in that year’s general elections.

In 1996, Greenspan made his famous ‘irrational exuberance’ comment, triggering a slide that history knows as the “Burst of the Dot Com Bubble.”

Since the unfortunate successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Democrats are left only with the economy to demagogue — Bernanke knows this, too.

Finally, it is the job of the Federal Reserve Board to prevent economic recession, not trigger one, as Bernanke surely knew his comments would do. (As previously noted, he’s really not an idiot.)

Why would the Fed chairman purposefully ‘talk down’ the economy in an election year, knowing his comments would trigger a panic whose ripple effect wouldn’t trickle down to the consumer level for another six months?

Let’s see, six months from April would be, ummm, October, no? Surprise! �