Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

[blazespinnaker]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...are_doing.html

QUESTION: Mr. Chairman, this is a city where the ideas of Milton Friedman continue to get a lot of attention and one of our questions via Twitter asks how you think Milton Friedman might have viewed the Federal Reserve's evolving role over the last five years.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve: I think Milton Friedman -- I'm a very big fan of Milton Friedman. I knew Friedman for a very long time. I was a colleague of his for a while at Stanford. I've had many opportunities to talk to him. I spoke at his 90th birthday party. I spoke at some other events in his honor. He's a terrific economist, very insightful. I think he would have supported what we are doing.

Bernanke also said that Friedman would have been "very comfortable" with the support the Fed is adding to the economy.

[Chomsky]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

All right, I read about this elsewhere, but for the benefit of everyone here -- would Friedman have agreed or not?

[Raz]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

All right, I read about this elsewhere, but for the benefit of everyone here -- would Friedman have agreed or not?

Not no, but hell no. Maybe some amount in the Fall of 2008, but Not QE2 and definitely not QE3 - an open-ended monetization of the deficit - mortgage backs or not.

[gwynedd1]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

Friedman was a Chicago school monetarist so yes he would be for Fed loosening of the money supply. He would certainly blame the government for encouraging sub prime, Fannie and Freddie, and I can't imagine how government bailouts of the investment banks would fit into his theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be5Ty...e=results_main

[dcarrigg]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

Besides, where's the fun when you don't get to pick names out of a book to be thrown out of helicopters to their deaths?

[Raz]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

Okay, I'll freely admit I could be wrong about Friedman. What I base it on is my recollection of him back in the mid-1970s when he ranted against Arthur Burns and the Fed monetization that took place during those years. Remembering that, it's hard for me to believe that he'd countenance the deliberate debauching of the Dollar to the degree Bernanke has done.

[doom&gloom]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...are_doing.html

QUESTION: Mr. Chairman, this is a city where the ideas of Milton Friedman continue to get a lot of attention and one of our questions via Twitter asks how you think Milton Friedman might have viewed the Federal Reserve's evolving role over the last five years.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve: I think Milton Friedman -- I'm a very big fan of Milton Friedman. I knew Friedman for a very long time. I was a colleague of his for a while at Stanford. I've had many opportunities to talk to him. I spoke at his 90th birthday party. I spoke at some other events in his honor. He's a terrific economist, very insightful. I think he would have supported what we are doing.

Bernanke also said that Friedman would have been "very comfortable" with the support the Fed is adding to the economy.

The real issue here is Bernanke is "thinking" again. Nothing but trouble can come from such an event.

Every other time Bernanke had a thought he has been wrong, so why should this be any different?

[dcarrigg]

Re: Bernanke On Milton Friedman: "I Think He Would Have Supported What We Are Doing"

Okay, I'll freely admit I could be wrong about Friedman. What I base it on is my recollection of him back in the mid-1970s when he ranted against Arthur Burns and the Fed monetization that took place during those years. Remembering that, it's hard for me to believe that he'd countenance the deliberate debauching of the Dollar to the degree Bernanke has done.

That's fair enough. We're all wrong about these people most of the time. It has got to be the risk that goes with not knowing them in person.