Thrown Under the Bus: Another Look at the Self-Serving Launch of Ben Bernanke's Blog and the Brookings Institute's Pandering Role

Within hours of Ben Bernanke launching his blog at the Brookings Institute I commented Ben Bernanke, Confused as Ever, Starts His Own Blog to Prove It.

By that time, a few hundred comments to his blog had already been approved. I made two comments of my own.

I asked Bernanke about  Fed-sponsored bubbles, inflation as measured by the CPI while ignoring assets especially in housing (see charts in the above link), and whether or not the Fed had any culpability for what had happened.

I was 99% sure in advance my questions and comments would be deleted. They were twice.

Instead of posting serious comments and questions, the Brookings institute fawned all over Bernanke by posting numerous glowing appraisals, thanks, and other trivia.

Purpose of Bernanke's Blog

The sole purpose of Bernanke's blog, and the Brookings Institute is shamefully willing to go along with it, is to vindicate Ben Bernanke and the Fed from their role in the housing bubble.

Others have chimed in on Bernanke's post and have had their comments and questions deleted as well.

Since the Brookings Institute is willing to degrade itself to such a level, I thought I would post a reply to Bernanke's Blog that I found noteworthy.

Ben Bernanke’s Apologia for the Fed

I invite you to read Ben Bernanke’s Apologia for the Fed by Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man blog.

Instead of excerpting Pater's excellent post, I simply ask you to take a look for yourself. Pater makes a mockery of Bernanke's "natural interest rate thesis", of Bernanke's claim that the Fed does not distort markets, of the presumed role of the Fed as a benevolent institution, and of Bernanke's disingenuous comments about "throwing senior citizens under the bus".

I made many similar comments, but Pater also brought into play a critical discussion on time preference and why natural interest rates can never be less than zero.

Pater Tenebrarum was my primary teacher on Austrian economics and the Libertarian philosophy dating back to about 2001. His blog is one of few I bookmark and invariably read.

If you are genuinely interested in the Austrian economic point of view, you may wish to bookmark his blog as well. His feed is also on the right side of my blog.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com