As a further proof that Bernanke bashing has nothing to do with political divisions, but is “just” a matter of knowledge vs. ignorance, take a look at this video:
It was July 2009. Alan Greyson, a Florida Democrat, posted it on Youtube. A couple of days later Zerohedge promoted it as “Grayson grilling Bernanke“. If you saw Bernanke’s GWU lectures, there is no need to comment. Hat Tip to Economics of Contempt, who picked it up immediately. My only comment to Greyson is: Stop shoe shining your hair: it shows!
My respect and admiration for Bernanke extends to the saintly patience with which he periodically had to face these excruciating scenes. He actually does have a saintly look, doesn’t he? (HT exploringmarkets.com):
A good man. I am looking forward to his memoirs, when he will finally be able to get everything off his chest. Being the gentleman that he is, though, he probably won’t.
One Response to “Saint Ben”
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I agree that St Ben puts in a restrained performance in response to questions that even I can see are pretty stupid.
But I can’t help feeling he could have avoided some of the resulting dumb-ass commentary had he been a bit less polite, and made clear (“for the benefit of those in the audience who may not understand [subtext: “yeah, you, you dumb-ass congressman]”) that the money had gone to foreign central banks for reasons entirely aligned with the best interests of the US.
Politeness has led some very good people to get a very bad press, and to their being removed in favour of fools, knaves and combinations of both. It would be a shame if St Ben fell into the same trap.