What makes me say this? Part of the reason is circumstantial to be sure: Dan Kervick just praised him:
"It appears Bernanke has actually learned something int the past 13 years."
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=14288&cpage=1#comment-156676
Call it a man bites dog moment when an MMTer like Dan has something good to say about Bernanke.
Scott Sumner, Mr. Market Monetarist, though is perplexed:
"And what are the odds that someone in the Congress would ask him the obvious question? After all, isn’t the Congress full of Republicans who think Bernanke’s pursuing an inflationary policy? Do they become born-again post-Keynesians the minute Bernanke walks into the room? Does the GOP now believe in liquidity traps? Or is this sort of exercise as silly as trying to decipher what an orangutan is “really thinking” when playing with an iPad?"
So Bernanke the Post Keynesian?! Here is a comment of his before Congress that no Market Monetarist could say ever:
"Bernanke has warned before of a possible setback to growth from the expiration of tax cuts and reductions in federal spending. The policy changes could more than offset the economy’s progress in recovering from the longest recession since the Great Depression, he said in an April 25 press conference."
“If no action were to be taken by the fiscal authorities, the size of the fiscal cliff is” so large that there’s“absolutely no chance that the Federal Reserve would have any ability whatsoever to offset that effect on the economy,”Bernanke said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-10/bernanke-speaks-about-risks-from-end-of-pro-growth-plans.html
I don't think I've said anything very negative about Bernanke before Mike. I've been in the "the Fed is out of bullets" camp, not one of those screaming for the Fed to do something.
ReplyDeleteNo I know that it was just kind of a joke-I kind of see MMT as being anti-Fed in the sense that it should be eliminated. I admit I don't know that it's your view.
ReplyDeleteOf course in a way the MMT view is more insulting that the Market Monetarists who "scream for more action."
There point is that the Fed could do something but for whatever reason dosen't. The MMT view on the other hand makes Berannke and company impotent.
Interestingly Minsky himself disagreed with a proposal in 1991 to absorb many of the Fed functions into the Treasury.