Senator Bunning Grills Bernanke To A Crisp - Video

And what was Bernanke's suggestion? Cut Medicaid and Social Security!

Just as this huge healthcare bill is still being debated.

Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Where Was The Fed?from AlterNet.org by Sen. Bernie SandersI am going to do my best to see that Mr. Bernanke’s nomination is defeated. Find out more at: senatorsandersunfiltered.com

Senator Bunning to Bernanke "You are the definition of a moral hazard. Your Fed has become the Creature From Jekyll Island"from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis by Michael Shedlock

Andrew Bacevich writes:

"Which is the greater folly: To fancy that war offers an easy solution to vexing problems, or, knowing otherwise, to opt for war anyway?

In the wake of 9/11, American statecraft emphasized the first approach: President George W. Bush embarked on a "global war" to eliminate violent jihadism. President Obama now seems intent on pursuing the second approach: Through military escalation in Afghanistan, he seeks to "finish the job" that Bush began there, then all but abandoned.

Through war, Bush set out to transform the greater Middle East. Despite immense expenditures of blood and treasure, that effort failed. In choosing Obama rather than John McCain to succeed Bush, the American people acknowledged that failure as definitive. Obama's election was to mark a new...

Read Full Article ››

The New Anti-War Right

by Reihan Salam

Reihan Salam writes:

"If Obama thinks the left is rapidly abandoning him on Afghanistan, wait till he sees the Republican defectors.

Thus far, President Obama has primarily been worried about his left flank as he sends more troops to Afghanistan. He should be just as worried about his friends on the right. I fully expect that over the next year Republicans will begin to abandon the president en masse over Afghanistan."

Republican on Senate Banking Committee to Place Hold on Bernanke Confirmation

It’s one thing for Bernie Sanders, who is an independent in more ways than one, to put a hold on Bernanke’s confirmation (a threat to filibuster, which if executed, will at a minimum will mess up the Senate’s calendar for a few days) and quite another from someone across the aisle, and a member of the Banking Committee to boot, to place a hold of his own.

From FireDogLake:

As Ben Bernanke’s confirmation hearing begins in the Senate Banking Committee, a source tells FDL News that one Senate staffer and an outside source confirmed to him that at least one Republican on the committee will also place a hold on the Federal Reserve chairman, throwing the process into potential turmoil and giving Chris Dodd a difficult series of choices to make.

Dodd, who just announced his intention to vote for Bernanke’s confirmation in the Banking Committee and on the floor of the Senate, would be in charge of the decision to honor or ignore that hold. The fact that Dodd tried to place a hold on the FISA Amendments Act in 2007-08, and was generally ignored by Harry Reid, just adds a layer of irony to the process.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of his work behind the scenes on the Bernanke confirmation, told me that two separate sources assured him that the Republican hold would be made public after today’s hearing. One staffer said that two Republicans would place the hold, while the other said it would just be one. The source said that the trans-partisan nature of opposition to Bernanke, with a conservative Republican and a socialist independent uniting to block the appointment, shows the intensity of the feelings on the issue. “It’s great to see everyone come together – Democrats, Republicans, progressives and libertarians, against this Federal Reserve, which is not federal, and not a reserve, just a group printing money and giving it to their buddies,” the source said.

While most people think that the multiple holds would delay the process, it’s unclear whether or not it would succeed.

Cracks are emerging, needless to say…the fact that anyone is even suggesting that opposition to Bernanke MIGHT succeed is a sea change from the view of the matter a mere week ago.

Update 4:00 PM: It’s Senator Bunning, and he says other Republicans will join him:

Bernanke Testifies: Is the Chairman Risking the Fed's Independence? Conservatives like to quip that, for the average member of Congress, spending other people's money is the best part of the job. If that's true, then grilling the Fed chairman after a financial crisis has to rank a close second.

Bernanke May Get Second Term at Fed Shorn of Bank Supervision (Bloomberg)

Jim Bunning Does Not ♥ Ben Bernanke Tim Iacono

Fed Chairmen Never Learn Calculated Risk

The Bad Ben Bernanke Bet By Paul Kedrosky ·

Three Reasons Why Ben Bernanke Should Not Be Confirmed as Fed Reserve Chairman

Jim Grant: Ben Bernanke Is Lucky He Hasn't Been Hanged

The US dollar that Bernanke loves to print is merely a 38-year old monetary experiment.

Read

Dean Baker: Yes, Virginia, It Is Bernanke's Fault

As the Senate debates Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's reappointment, it is striking how the media view blaming Mr. Bernanke for the Great Recession as being out of bounds. Of course Bernake bears much of the blame for this economic collapse.

He was either in, or next to, the driver's seat for the last 7 years. Bernanke was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board since the summer of 2002. He served a 6 month stint as head of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors beginning in the summer of 2005 and then went back to chair the Fed in January of 2006.

Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Where Was The Fed?
by Sen. Bernie Sanders

Bernanke Tips Hand On FED's MBS Purchases: More Quantitative Easing Straight Ahead An exchange with Senator Bob Corker reveals all. Read

Bernanke Responds to Senator Bunning

by CalculatedRisk on 12/15/2009 05:07:00 PM

Chairman Bernanke has responded in writing to a series of questions from Senator Bunning.

Bernanke Stonewalls and Prevaricates in Response to Questions by Sen. Bunning