e-commentary

. . .

K          “They are Swedes.  They are rumored to be smart and level-headed.”

J          “There is always that bottom half of the class lurking out there.”

. . .

K          “The selection of Bernanke is cruel, perverse, twisted and offensive.  He has done more to destroy opportunity for the average person and to shovel wealth to the already wealthy Kleptocrats than just about anyone else in recent history other than possibly Greenspan.  We are suffering and will continue to suffer from his decisions and indecision.”

J          “Bernanke committed economic crimes against the public good.  A person who commits economic crimes against the public good is a criminal.”

. . .

K          “One of the recipients of the purported Peace Prize is allegedly investigating Russian war crimes but not Ukrainian/NATO/US/UK war crimes.  They should be investigating war crimes.  Partisan activities should not be rewarded.  So many of the purported NGOs [Non-Governmental Organizations] are fronts working hand in glove with governments.” 

J          “They may need to take sides.  Sometimes, sides need to be taken.”

. . .

K          “You know full well that when they took the fingerprints on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage caper, they made a perfect match with . . . Samuel, Uncle.  You know full well that when they did a DNA swab test on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage caper, they made a perfect match with . . . Samuel, Uncle.  And now the Swedes are blocking a complete investigation of an international act of terrorism.”

J          “They may need to take sides.  Sometimes, sides need to be taken.”

. . .

K          “These are the good folks who conceived and crafted the legendary Volvo 122S and the celebrated SAAB 90 series.”

J          “These are the good folks at the Gransfors Bruk and S.A. Wetterlings and Hults Bruk facilities who hand forge scientific works of art that work artfully in hand.  At least we agree that the dullards at the Sveriges Riksbank, the Swedish Central Bank, are not the sharpest splitting mauls in the wood bunk.  Their failure, however, is not one of intellect but of judgement, character and integrity.”

. . .

[See “Noble and Ignoble Prizes” at Rabobank dated October 11, 2022 by Michael Every; “The Sveriges Riksbank Counterfeit Nobel Award Goes to Bernanke et al. for the Wrong Model” at Naked Capitalism dated October 19, 2022 by Yves Smith, the recipient of the Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022; “Ben Bernanke vs. Greg Hunter” at www.mark-skidmore.com by Mark Skidmore, the recipient of the Fourth Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 14, 2019); “A Nobel? Ben Bernanke belongs in the Economics Hall of Shame” at the New York Post dated October 11, 2022 by the Editorial Board and “Ben Bernanke getting Nobel Prize is panned as ‘drunkest decision of all time’” in the New York Post dated October 19, 2022 by Ariel Zilber.]

[See the optimistic and hopeful e-commentary at Bernanke 2.0 (August 31, 2009) and a more disquieting analysis of his comments and tenure at the Fed. at  Economics And Finance:  Girls v. Boys (June 4, 2018) including commentary on economic and financial commentators including Yves Smith.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“In the surreal economy, the Nobel Prize committee showed either they don’t read this Daily (no!), or if they do, they do the opposite.  After all, they just gave the Prize in Economics (jointly) to former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke.

Yes, Economics isn’t a real Noble Prize.  Yes, there have been lots of previous stupid winners of even the real Prizes:

For Peace to Aung San Suu Kyi, for being pro-democracy – who then looked the other way over a genocide; to the EU, for being the EU; to Barack Obama, for something – who then carried out drone strikes on weddings, etc.; to Henry Kissinger – for blowing up South-East Asia, etc.

For Literature to Peter Handke – despite genocide denial (again); to Bob Dylan – for singing; to Mario Vargas Llosa – for being political in a way the committee liked; and never to Tolstoy while we was still alive.

For Economics to Friedman – for monetarism, just before it was tried and failed, and as he backed the dictator Pinochet in Chile; to Nordhaus – for saying if climate change gets too bad, we can spend more time indoors and GDP will be OK; to Krugman – for saying free trade always ends up with the best of all possible outcomes in the best of all possible worlds.         

However, to give a Nobel to Ben “Sub-prime is contained”/“high levels of private debt do not matter”/“banks intermediate between savers and borrowers”/“zero rates and QE” Bernanke for providing “a foundation for our modern understanding of why banks are needed, why they’re vulnerable, and what to do about it” — just as central banks try to undo the post-2008 policy error, and perhaps the post-1980 financialisation and zombification of the economy to boot — is either a slap in the face (“You might reshape the global economy, but you aren’t going to get a prize from us!”) or shows economics, or the Nobel committee, or both are past saving.

Putting it more succinctly, Matt Taibbi tweeted: “Giving Ben Bernanke the Nobel Prize in Economics may be the drunkest decision of all time.”  Amen, Matt, Amen. And cheers to the Nobel Prize team.

. . .

Don’t worry though – we have Ben Bernanke and other Nobel prize-winners to guide us through.”