Word: panic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...second term as Federal Reserve chairman. Much of the opposition that's been building lately to Bernanke's confirmation consists of Republicans who want to obstruct anything President Obama wants and Democrats who want to obstruct anything Wall Street wants. But while Bernanke performed brilliantly during the worst financial panic in 75 years, it's fair to ask why he isn't doing more now to fight unemployment (the left's chief complaint) or inflation (the right's chief complaint). (See pictures of Ben Bernanke...
...Street guy. This is just wrong. Bernanke is a Main Street guy, a middle-class kid from small-town Dillon, S.C., whose father actually owned a pharmacy on Main Street. He has never worked on Wall Street. He's an academic who studied the Depression and learned how financial panic can lead to economic calamity. He bailed out bankers not to reward their bad behavior but to prevent that bad behavior from crippling the global economy. It's not his fault the markets like him. (See why TIME chose Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year...
...blew it during the crisis. This is nutty. It's easy to nitpick the AIG bailout or any of the Fed's other unpalatable decisions during the panic, but they have worked out better than anyone had any right to expect, preventing a catastrophe for a relatively paltry price. Bernanke has been pilloried for conjuring up trillions of dollars out of thin air and lending to unconventional borrowers who had never dreamed of getting their hands on Fed cash, but more than 80% of his emergency loans have been paid back, and the Fed is returning record profits to taxpayers...
...corner. Inflation fears may not be justified by data today, but they can be self-fulfilling tomorrow, and the hawks who harbor them are quite influential on Wall Street. If markets and Chinese bondholders start to lose confidence in the value of the U.S. dollar, that could trigger another panic, regardless of the rationality of their fears. A little inflation might be a good thing, but if jittery markets take a little inflation as a sign that the Fed has gone soft, the result could be a run on the dollar and out-of-control inflation. Bernanke is determined...
Epic congressional investigations of Wall Street have followed the nation's epic financial disasters: the Pujo Committee, starting in 1912, and the Pecora Commission, in 1932. Now, after a year of sometimes enlightening but mostly maddening congressional hearings about the Panic of 2008, a potential modern equivalent is under way--the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by Congress but populated by a mix of financial experts and smarter-than-average former elected officials. In keeping with the P-heavy historical precedents, it could be known as the Phil Commission, after chairman Phil Angelides--a former California state treasurer who lost...