Bland benign and befuddling was Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke's projections for the short term. Adhering to his usual purposefully vague and cryptic presentations, Mr. Bernanke seemed determined to remain as inconclusively noncommittal as ever.
The Chairmen's attitude toward Europe's crisis and its obvious inability to stabilize their downward spiral indicated an uncomfortable disconnect between the EU and the US' prospects for a sustained recovery. By our measure, as a single economy, the EU is the largest trading partner of the US with $367.8 billion worth of EU goods going to the US and $268.6 billion of US goods going to the EU as of 2011, totaling approximately $636.4 billion in total trade.
How Bernanke could blow this off as nearly inconsequential. blew our minds. The doublespeak was not only confusing, but at times seemed downright contradictory and counterintuitive.To project US GDP growth to increase from 2.2-2.7 to 2.4-2.9 percent over the next two years while the EU is projected to head in the opposite direction just didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Even if Europe's populace were willing to accept austerity measures as a means slow spending until growth can replace the pain, the fact is, they are revolting en masse. While governments may be formulating plans and policies to stabilize and hold the EU together, the people have yet to give their approval to anyone.
Doubling down on the madness, Mr. Bernanke somehow was able to state unemployment figures would recede despite predictors indicating future forecast showing a slowing due uncertainty of responsible fiscal management by legislators. Considering the automatic cuts due to trigger if the current state of "do nothing" remains the status quo, every forecast and prediction the Fed Chairmen made will be reassessed to the downside.
To his credit, the Chairmen reiterated time and again, if things began to tank, he If fiscal policy action is and should be the primary consideration in projecting growth potential, it is even more confounding to fathom how one could take anything the Fed Chairmen stated with more than a grain of salt. How the so called experts are suppose to dissect, decipher and deliver advices to clients for investments or business planning is a mystery still to be solved.
As far as Dr. Bernanke's effort to be more transparent for the purpose of educating the public to the inner workings of the Federal Reserve, we found all the clarity of a gothic cathedral's stained glass windows.
Constantly citing the input of 17 different participants and the consensus of ten members is what contributes to the somewhat vague and inconsistent economic outlook, perhaps a panel discussion in lieu of a Fed Chairmen unwilling to accept full responsibility for anything he utters.
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