MoveOn Fighting Bernanke Reappointment

If Ben Bernanke wants the people to give him a second term, according to a leading progressive advocacy organization, he'd better convince them he's on their side.

Though he moved quickly to save the big banks last year, the Federal Reserve chairman has offered few solutions to the problems of burgeoning unemployment. His suggestion for taming the national debt is to target the nation's social safety net.

Now, MoveOn.org is gearing up to demand hard answers from Bernanke, who Americans believe by wide margins to be serving Wall Street's interests, rather than Main Street's. A draft letter obtained by the Huffington Post asks MoveOn members in New York to e-mail Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asking him to oppose Bernanke's confirmation for another term as Fed chairman "unless he explains, in detail, how he'll help middle-class folks struggling in this economy."

MoveOn is trying to build on the "bipartisan momentum" against Bernanke, as a growing bloc of senators shift from disappointment with Bernanke's tenure to full-throated opposition.

"Mr. Bernanke has failed at all four core responsibilities of the Federal Reserve. It's time for him to go," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the first of five senators so far to place holds delaying Bernanke's confirmation, said in a statement Wednesday.

Freshman Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) joined the "No"'s on Bernanke's second term Wednesday.

The full MoveOn.org draft letter appears below:

Dear MoveOn member,

One of the key architects of the Bush economy, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, has been nominated for another four-year term by President Obama. But there's bipartisan momentum building to hold up his confirmation until he shows that he's willing to help regular folks--and not just big banks.

Bernanke presided over the biggest Wall Street bailout in history, making trillions of dollars of loans to big banks with no oversight. But as Paul Krugman points out, while Bernanke was willing to take extreme measures to save the financial system, he displays a "curious mix of complacency and fatalism" when it comes to tackling the massive unemployment problem.1

This is really problematic, because ensuring "full employment" is explicitly part of his mandate as Federal Reserve Chair. And it's not like there's nothing he could do. Major economists have proposed several initiatives that the Fed could launch immediately to help the broader economy recover, but Bernanke isn't interested.

Your senator, Charles Schumer, is on the Senate Banking Committee and there's a key vote coming up on Bernanke's nomination tomorrow. Can you ask Sen. Schumer to vote against confirming Ben Bernanke unless he explains, in detail, how he'll help middle-class folks struggling in this economy?

Senator Charles Schumer
Phone: [phone]

Then, please report your call by clicking here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSNY_1&cp_id=1211&id=&t=3

Given the questions swirling about Bernanke's conduct, progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders and conservative Sen. Jim Bunning have placed a hold on Bernanke's nomination, citing numerous concerns about his conduct.2 And economists have joined the call to delay Bernanke's nomination--from progressives like Dean Baker to right-wingers like Grover Norquist.3They agree that Bernanke's actions as Federal Reserve Chair deserve far more scrutiny before the Senate votes.

Progressives are particularly concerned because even though millions of Americans have just seen their retirement savings disappear, Bernanke told Congress that they should propose cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security to lower the deficit.4 When Sen. Jack Reed asked Bernanke whether imposing new taxes on Wall Street could be another way to achieve the same goals, Bernanke wouldn't agree.

At a time when so many Americans are hurting, we can't afford to have our monetary policy guided by someone who's mainly looking out for Wall Street. If Ben Bernanke thinks that lowering the deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare should be the Federal Reserve's top priority right now, rather than lowering unemployment, then he doesn't deserve a second term.

The Senate needs to hold more hearings regarding Bernanke's views before rushing to reconfirm him for four more years.

Please call Sen. Schumer today--ask him to vote against confirming Ben Bernanke unless he explains how he'll help folks on Main Street.

Senator Charles Schumer
Phone: [phone]

After you call, let us know here:
http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSNY_1&cp_id=1211&id=&t=4

Thank you for all you do.

-Daniel, Noah, Ilya, Kat, and the rest of the team

Sources:
1. "Bernanke's Unfinished Mission," The New York Times, December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/opinion/11krugman.html

2. "Sanders Puts Hold on Bernanke," U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, December 2, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85803&id=&id=&t=5

"Bunning places second hold on Bernanke," The Hill, December 3, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85807&id=&t=6

3. "Coalition of groups on left and right want delay on Bernanke vote," The Hill, December 15, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85804&id=&t=7

4. "Bernanke Channels Willie Sutton In Assault On Social Security: 'That's Where The Money Is'," The Huffington Post, December 4, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85802&id=&t=8

Comments

[Siebenstein]

03:06 AM on 01/06/2010

Move On, you have 100% of my support !

[booki]

08:48 PM on 12/17/2009

oh well..should we have expected any but...........him being re-instated?
..me too.i do not understand it.
i once knew a person...........she was ..referred to as "co-dependent."
everytime she got hurt.....she would go right back to the type person ..that hurt her.
she never learned her lesson.

[CaptainVideo]

02:10 AM on 12/17/2009

We have a whole list of invalid criticisms of Bernanke on thIS thread, which can easily be debunked by looking at the facts. See some of my messages below, for example.

But there is a valid criticism. Since the unemployment rate is projected to come down only by a small amount next year and stay high for years, the Fed's monetary policy IS NOT EXPANSIONARY ENOUGH. The Fed should be moving agressively to bring longer and long term interest rates down more. This will stimulate spending by both households and firms. It is especially important that mortgage rates be brought down farther to stimulate the housing industry. In addition the Fed needs to move to improve the credit availability to small businesses, whose inability to get loans in too many cases prevents them from expanding and therefore employing more people. Yes, that means that the Fed has to print even more money. This will, of course, cause the Ron Paul cultists to get their panties all in a bunch. But they do not count. The bottom line is:

IT'S THE JOBS, STUPID!

[CaptainVideo]

01:51 AM on 12/17/2009

"Though he moved quickly to save the big banks last year, the Federal Reserve chairman has offered few solutions to the problems of burgeoning unemployment."

When Bear Sterns went belly up, the financial system froze. We were literally looking into the abbys. One more bankruptcy of a major financial firm, like AIG, would have caused another collapse of the financial system lide in 1933, and another Great Depression. Bernanke, by acting boldly in having the Fed carry out its most fundamental function of lender of last resort, played a central role in preventing this. What he did was not a matter of saving a few banks. What he did was to save the economy from a much greater recession, and quite possibly another Great Depression.

As far as solutions for the problems of burgeoning unemployment, his resitance to the call by conservatives to start raising interest rates and his announcements that short-term interest rates will be kept low is crucial to letting the economy recover, so that unemployment can come down.

[CaptainVideo]

01:39 AM on 12/17/2009

"If Ben Bernanke thinks that lowering the deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare should be the Federal Reserve's top priority right now, rather than lowering unemployment, then he doesn't deserve a second term."

This is a totally ignorant statement because cutting (or increasing) the deficit is FISCAL POLICY. The Fed is responsible for MONETARY POLICY. Cutting the deficit is totally out of the area of responsibility of Bernanke and the Fed.

I think Bernanke deserves to be criticised for his position on cutting Social Security and Medicare and be reminded the the Chairman of the Fed is supposed to be bipartisan on all areas outside of monetary policy and financial institutions regulation, but it in no way disqualifies him for this job.

[sokolof]

12:59 AM on 12/17/2009

Schumer is the wrong person to reach out to

[samm120]

11:14 PM on 12/16/2009

u r absolutely right TJ cole, Obama seems to be anoyher one.........

[kappa08]

11:12 PM on 12/16/2009

Does MoveOn win anything?...I mean don't get me wrong..I dig their style. But it seems like they rarely pan out...just sayin

[Rachel O]

01:19 AM on 12/17/2009

I think you can credit them with helping win the democratic majority and Obama's presidency. The ultimate value of that is proving doubtful of late, but it's still something they helped accomplish.

[sweetnesstoday]

11:01 PM on 12/16/2009

Bernacke is like the drug pusher. An enabler for the addict. A380 Ben also provides cover to congressmen by printing money. If he would stop the presses and end bail outs to banks our politicians would be pressured to make tough decisions. Congress is scared of having another Paul Volcker because they would be forced to face reality and do their job. Our politicians are not socially responsible people who are advocates for the people. They are egotist who like being stroked and treated like pharisees. Under Greenspan and Bernanke, the FED has become the fourth branch of government.

[CaptainVideo]

01:58 AM on 12/17/2009

When Paul Volker was chairman of the Fed, the economy suffered from the second worst recession (second only to this one) since the Great Depression.

If the Fed were to stop abandoning expansionary monetary policy output would start declining again. The expansionary monetary policy of the Fed (along with the fiscal stimulus) are why output (real GDP) which was declining at 6% when Obama took over is now growing. However, in order for the uneployment rate to come down at an acceptably fast pace, the economy not only has to grow, but grow briskly. This is something it is not doing. To achieve this the economy needs a still stronger monetary (as well as fiscal) stimulus. Yes that means the Fed, to bring the unemployment down more quickly has to print money faster than it is doing now.

[magibrotherhood]

10:33 PM on 12/16/2009

It was just a coincidence that b.ernanke was named Time Magazine`s t.u.rd of the Year.....just a coincidence....just weeks before his confirmation vote.

[autumncolors]

10:50 PM on 12/16/2009

Time Magazine systematic propaganda! Now we don't have to guess about media not being on our side.

[ptarantino]

10:28 PM on 12/16/2009

Audit the Fed.

[2tango]

10:52 PM on 12/16/2009

I support the Idea!

[banja]

11:01 PM on 12/16/2009

very naive

[CaptainVideo]

01:42 AM on 12/17/2009

Auditing the Fed will not create a single additional job. On the contrary, by letting politicians look over its shoulder it makes its job of restoring the economy to full employment more difficult.

Auditing the Fed is the trojan horse of ultra laissez-faire ideologue Ron Paul, who thinks the Fed and the government should not do anything to restore the economy to full employment, intended to weaken the Fed's hand.

[bayviking]

10:20 PM on 12/16/2009

While Bernanke is not as directly responsible for the meltdown as say Rubin, Geithner, Greenspan or Summers, he had a hand in planning its timing. The collapse of Bear-Stearns and Lehman Bros was timed just before the last election and designed to scare Congress into abiding Paulson's and Bernanke's will, by forking over taxpayer money for rich fraudsters. I am certain this was done, because as a a debtor nation, we cannot afford to pi$$ off our bankers, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and many European countries.........

Audit the Fed, the truth must come out.

[magibrotherhood]

10:34 PM on 12/16/2009

collusion

[TJCole]

10:04 PM on 12/16/2009

Bernanke is just an errand boy, for The Bilderberg Group..!

Do you think he makes all those decisions..?

Not a chance that's why he always looks so nervous and afraid when testilying...!

[magibrotherhood]

10:35 PM on 12/16/2009

He`s a shady dude.

[autumncolors]

10:56 PM on 12/16/2009

Bilderberg founding member and, for 30 years, a steering committee member, Denis Healey has said:

“ To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing.

[MayorQuimby]

10:02 PM on 12/16/2009

The Fed has little to nothing to do with jobs creation. They control available liquidity in the system. The CONGRESS is the one that pursued a globalist agenda starting in '91 that resulted in America exporting its entire manufacturing base. Sadly - the only thing Ben can do to spur jobs creation is to keep rates low which lends money to the top by which jobs supposedly 'trickle down'. Since this is a terribly ineffective inflationary policy that ends up hurting Joe sixpack, the Fed can't really help. If they go for a strong dollar, our exports crumble. With a weak dollar, oil (and therefore food, heat, gas) all go up and we get higher cost of living. This is the price we pay for having lived beyond our means for sooooo long.

[bayviking]

10:29 PM on 12/16/2009

You make some important points, but the collapse of jobs and wages was planned by the likes of Rubin, Greenspan and Summers in order to provide massive profits for their elite club. The Feds job includes controlling the unemployment rate, one of the tasks in which Bernanke has failed completely. Other failures include refusing to enforce existing regulations on member banks and turning a blind eye to fraud.

[MayorQuimby]

11:51 PM on 12/16/2009

Sure - lots of blame that can't be squeezed in here for sure.

[CaptainVideo]

02:20 AM on 12/17/2009

The Fed's standard policy instrument, monetary policy is very effective in stimulating aggregate demand, that is, the total demand for final goods and services. As aggregate demand increases, firms sell more output, which causes them to produce more and hire more workers. This is supported by extensive empirical evidence. And during financial crisis the Fed's even more basic function of acting as lender of last resort played a crucial role in preventing a complete meltdown of the financial system like we had in 1933 and another Great Depression.

Expansionary monetary policy when the economy is at full employment causes inflation. Expansionary monetary policy when the economy is at 10% unemployment causes jobs to be created.

[autumncolors]

09:38 PM on 12/16/2009

I am curious about what the Palinoids and Bushies' take is on a progressive organization (move on) going against Obama's nomination?