Mises.Org: The "Ben Bernake is Wrong" Video

This video would be a good laugh if not for the fact that it centers around one of the most powerful men in the world's propensity to be wrong in case after case. I sincerely laughed at the "we've never had a nationwide drop in housing prices" line since it was one of my big beefs against the financial punditry (of which I didn't realize until I saw these clips, Ben was such a part of) - even before I started the blog. Just because something has not happened in the past, does not mean it could not happen. And speaking of "it never happened before" was anyone measuring home prices in the 1930s? Meanwhile certain bloggers were calling for dramatic price drops ... [Dec 6, 2007: Analysis - What Should Median Home Prices be Today?] Among many other dark scenarios. [Dec 4, 2007: Predictions for the Coming 6 Months]

I also see Uncle Ben joined Uncle Hank Paulson (must of been drinking from the same barrel of Kool Aid) with almost identical terminology. Hank told us in April 2007 "subprime is contained" - and really, considering he was the head of Goldman Sachs (GS) when the era of CDOs (full of subprime loans) was moving from child to teenager to adult, who would know better? Apparently - not the former head of Goldman Sachs. Nor the 'top regulator in the land'.

Thankfully having a good forecasting record has nothing to do with securing the top economist job in the world.

To reiterate my beef is not as much with Uncle Ben as the institution - one that has gone rogue and out of control and being used as a crutch for a country who cannot face reality. Keep in mind as Ben talks about the "confidence" he has in bank regulators, that the FED is the #1 "master regulator" of the country. Then again, our regulators are captured agencies, under the thumb of our oligarchs.

Last note - I did get a kick seeing all the US index stock prices in the 2005 videos higher than they are today; of course only oil is higher today (The Fed is competent at one thing - creating inflation)

Via Mises.org: Ben Bernanke was Incredibly, Uncannily Wrong

We now have the diametrical opposite of the famous "Peter Schiff Was Right" video (a compilation of 2006 and 2007 clips in which Schiff, a financial expert who subscribes to Austrian economics, predicted the deep recession that would follow the bursting of the housing bubble).

The new, opposite video is a compilation of the 2005–2007 prognostications of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. In it, Bernanke is shown to have been just as embarrassingly wrong as Schiff was uncannily right. Could their differences in economic understanding have anything to do with this remarkable dichotomy?