The question at hand is has Ben Bernenke done a good job for this country?
I have an interesting perspective in that I was in the foreclosure business for a number of years. I was one of those guys that stood at the roadside in front of the house and would bid against the bank to buy the house in foreclosure. That is how it is done in my area.
Before you decide I am one of the bad guys, keep in mind that if I won the bid I was willing to pay more for the house then any of the other bidders including the bank. If I did not show up to bid the bank would have been the highest bidder and bought the house. If the house sold for more then what was owed, to someone other than the bank (which used to happen quite often years ago) the overage was refunded to the homeowner that lost their home.
Now for my perspective on Ben Bernenke I was active in the business 2002-2007. I saw the real estate market starting to slow in the 2005-2006 timeframe and realized this was due to the Federal Reserve jacking the interest rate meeting after meeting. I was quite surprised that they kept doing this without taking a breather as so many mortgages where now variable rate mortgages that would start to blowup.
Why they kept jacking the rate for over a year when it was clear there was going to be an impact in terms of foreclosures? I beleive was their concern with inflation and low interest rates (the bane of the rich) and either being ignorant or oblivious to what they were doing. I don’t know for sure which, but they were certainly not looking out for homeowners and average Americans.
Federal Reserve rate history
Now not overstate my case I wanted to point out that Ben was not Chairman during all this time. He took over as chairman Feb 1, 2006. Once he became chairman he continued to increase the rate for 3 more meetings then waited over 1 year before making any cuts when we were starting to find ourselves in a very big problem. Why oh why did he not act sooner?
Oh, also before he was Fed Chairman he was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, a job of similar importance and significant influence.
Now, for what he’s done to save this economy I give him a B+, but for what he’s done to cause this problem to start with no better than a D.
Oh, as a side note you would think people in such high powered positions such as this would have a good understanding of such things a CDO’s (collateral debt obligations) and how this country took on so many variable rate mortgages. If they did they did they acted incompetently, if they didn’t they acted ignorantly. Not the best of choices.