<blockquote>'In pointing out the consequences of a set of abstract assumptions, one need not be committed unduly as to the relation between reality and these assumptions.'
- George Washington (
Context)</blockquote>
<blockquote>'His academic research was steeped in the increasingly sophisticated discipline of econometrics, which uses computer models to simulate (and predict) the economy...'
- Roger Lowenstein,
The Education of Ben Bernanke, January 20, 2008</blockquote>
<blockquote>'...most academic disciplines and top-tier journals are controlled by some defining paradigm...
- Ryan Grim,
Priceless: How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession, 10-23-09</blockquote>
'...a dangerous reliance on economic models and a disingenuous use of the English language to sway public opinion.'<blockquote>In what clearly appears to be an attempt to work backwards from a conclusion (based on its contents, a better title for the speech would have been "
Monetary Policy was not Responsible for the Housing Bubble"), the Fed chairman demonstrates an incredible lack of understanding about the financial and political world in which he lives and exhibits some disturbing character flaws that have not been on display before to this degree, namely, a dangerous reliance on economic models and a disingenuous use of the English language to sway public opinion.
- Tim Iacono,
The mess that Bernanke is making worse, January 07, 2010</blockquote>
'Bernanke was a persistent and vigorous bubble denier...'<blockquote>'Bernanke was a persistent and vigorous bubble denier, first in his capacity as a member of the Board of Governors and then on his becoming Fed chair in January of 2006. Even as the bubble began to unwind in the winter of 2007 he gave assurances that the problems would be contained in the subprime market. After he engineered the takeover of Bear Stearns in March of 2008, Bernanke told Congress that he did not see another Bear Stearns out there. Needless to say, he was surprised by the collapse of Lehman and the market's response six months later.'
- Dean Baker,
The Beatification of Ben Bernanke, April 9, 2009</blockquote>
...the Great Depression and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.<blockquote>' “When you think about the big economic disruptions, what I always worry about is that you get into the fault lines on the political and social side of things pretty fast,” White said, citing the confluence of the Great Depression and Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. '
-Alan Katz,
Hitler’s Specter Inspires Bill White to Battle With Greenspan, March 31, 2009</blockquote>
<blockquote>'In the real world, an artificial boost in demand that is not supported by production leads to the dilution of the pool of real
savings and, contrary to the Keynesian view, to a shrinking in the flow of real wealth. The result is economic impoverishment.'
- Frank Shostak,
Is Something Out of Nothing Possible?, 2/22/2008</blockquote>
<blockquote>'Anna Schwartz, remarkable woman and revered economist, turns 93 on Monday. She graduated from Barnard College in New York in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, at age 18. She got a master's degree in economics from Columbia University at age 19. She went to work as an economist at age 20 (leaving her PhD until the 1960s). Five years into her career, Ms. Schwartz joined the National Bureau of Economic Research, the private, Cambridge, Mass.-based research organization that cites 16 winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics as associates – including her celebrated husband, free-market champion Milton Friedman. Ms. Schwartz still works in the bureau's New York offices where, almost seven decades later, she still puts in five full days a week and still studies the nature and causes of business cycles.
Ms. Schwartz says the Federal Reserve caused the credit crisis that has shaken financial institutions around the world.'
- Neil Reynolds,
Greenspan critics: One voice stands out, April 11, 2008</blockquote>
-
Great Depressions Are So Methodical - By Bob Hoye, May 14, 2009
-
Clinging to Misguided Monetary Mentalities - By Doug Noland, October 16, 2009
-
Entering the Greatest Depression in History - By Andrew Gavin Marshall, August 8, 2009
-
Storms on the Horizon - By Richard W. Fisher, May 28, 2008