Ben Bernanke Images Federal Reserve Chairman during the last part of the Bush MIS-Administration - post-2006

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INTRODUCTION: Below are images that capture some of the highlights of the Ben Bernanke years in the George W. Bush MID-administration, which ran from Jan 2001 to Jan 2009. Some will remember Bernanke for his smug, unhelpful responses to the Congress during the Sept-Nov 2008 hearings on the 'Paulson bailout'. When one congress-person asked him a reasonable question about the 'toxic assets', Bernanke simply answered that they were too complicated to explain (REEEaaally, Ben? ALL of them!) and immediately displayed a smug smile. The UNhelpfulness of Bernanke's testimony was only outshone by the high words-to-information ratio --- and the same 'too complicated' reply, used over-and-over-and-over again --- in the testimony of the Treasury Secretary, Henry 'Hank' Paulson. In contrast to the Bernanke & Paulson, the testimony of FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair was so clear, yet reasonably detailed, and demonstrated such clear thought processes that she made Paulson and Bernanke look like numbskulls or crooks --- or both. For MORE Images and Data: For more images (and data) for this wing, see the WEB SEARCHES section below. Those searches may suffice in case I never return to add to the pictures on this page.

Youth :

Yes, but I didn't inhale.

Bernanke replaces Greenspan as Fed Chairman :

Bernanke oversees several rounds of
rate cuts as the stock market tanks
in early to mid 2008
(the unprecedented volatility begins) :

In 2008, it was revealed that
when you get ratings from the rating agencies,
you have to do a little conversion in your head.
Triple A = Triple D.

(In other words, the rating agencies were in
'cahoots' with the mortgage lenders & packagers.)

Bernanke & Paulson presenting & defending
the "Paulson Plan" in Congress, Sep-Nov 2008 :

You can see more exhibits, focused on Paulson, in the Paulson wing.

Bernanke explains the Paulson-Bernanke method
of supporting the economy.

The 'something he said' could have been the way Paulson
answered the Congress men and women's questions.
In an answer, he would talk for 20 minutes
and say two basic things :

1) "The toxic assets are too complicated for you to understand."
and
2) "I welcome oversight." [left unsaid: because I know oversight by a
Congressional committee is no oversight at all --- and besides,
they must take complaints to the Executive branch
for remedy, and guess who's in charge there.]

Implementation of the bailout,
Nov 2008 - Jan 2009 :

Going bear hunting with Paulson is kind of like
going bird hunting with Cheney.

Don't know about the bear,
but the taxpayers sure got shot up.

The destruction of the safeguards implemented
following the Crash of 1929 --- that is, separation
of investment institutions from bank deposits ---
is now complete.

The investment branches of the 'holding' companies
now have unfettered access to depositors' life savings.

(If you think they will be "highly regulated",
I have a bridge to sell you.)

Depositors in Bank of America & Wells Fargo
(banks that merged with investment institutions,
like BofA & Merrill Lynch), be afraid, be very afraid.

(Best to scatter your deposits --- or use the
tactic of farmers in the 1930's, bury savings in a place
you can remember, like the corner of a fenceline.)

Let the give-aways begin.

Who is controlling whom?
It appears someone is abdicating
their duty to the taxpayers.

This cartoonist apparently didn't get
the message from FoxNews and CNBC.

He was supposed to be convinced that the
lenders --- who were advertising :
'Bad credit? Bankruptcy? No problem!
Get your mortgage right here!
No interest for 12 months!' ---
were being taken advantage of by
those diabolically evil borrowers.

Those hyper-aggressive borrowers were
forcing the lenders to take out those ads
in newspapers and on the Internet.

Those poor, mis-treated lenders. What could they do?
They feared for their lives. They had no choice
but to lend to those threatening married couples and
those bankrupt persons with all their friends in
high places. Millions of evil borrowers. HA!

Even if it doesn't help the patient,
it makes the doctor feel like he's
done something to deserve his high-fees,
when he writes a prescription.

AND, the great thing is ... the patient
has to pay for the drug too. In this case,
1000s of dollars for every man, woman, child in the country.

See how it works?

The taxpayers get a 'stimulus' bowel cleanse.

Awwwww. Isn't it touching? Sweethearts.

Gee, yet another group getting bailed out.
Well, where else can bond dealers get money.
The banks don't trust the bond dealers.
The banks don't trust each other.

Say ... how much of the bailoutS are
going to financial lobbyists in D.C.?

Bernanke once mentioned
dropping money from a helicopter.

The dinosaurs seemed too big to fail too.
Seems alligators and lizards and insects and
primates and, eventually, man came through
that catastrophe.

There is a lesson there.
Let the big banks go, and
let the small banks pick up the pieces.

Betcha, in a matter of months, no one
will miss the big banks --- or their CEO's.

Manna from the Fed in Heaven.

The Fed will get America buying bank
stocks again, even if the Treasury has to
spend the very last penny of the taxpayers' future.

The Main-Street appraiser is connected to
the Main-Street lender.

The Main-Street lender is connected to
the Mortgage-bundler.

The Morgage-bundler is connected to
the Wall-Street banks.

The Wall-Street banks are connected to
the Wall-Street debt insurers.

And the U.S. taxpayers have to bailout
the last two.

(The home-builders are in line.)
(Let the foreign investors beware.)

By the way, what happened to that plan
for taxpayers to buy mortgages?

Taxpayer, which would you rather have
--- a mortgage on a
somewhat depressed property? --- or a
(probably to-be-worthless) bank stock?

Furthermore --- why aren't banks lending
to each other, even after 350 billion dollars
of bailout? Could it be because there are still
many mortgages on their books --- and
the CEO's don't trust each other?

Then why should we trust the banks, and
their stock warrants to the Fed?

Well, the economy WAS basically sound
... once upon a time,
long, long ago (at least 7 years ago).

We will have to see how these graphs,
of the value of the dollar, 2002-2008, do in 2009.

Is this going to be the end result?
--- of the collapse of the dollar.