16 March 2009

Watch This Interview (Update: Part 2 Included)

EVEN THOUGH THIS may seem way too 'inside economics', I just watched an interview from the American television show '60 Minutes' that was very, very interesting. The show interviewed current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the current economic downturn. If you are slightly confused as to why the crisis happened and what the US government is doing about it, I highly recommend that you take a couple minutes to watch this piece. It provides a very basic explanation of what is a very complicated issue. We also like watching Bernanke because one of our friends who lives in Frankfurt studied under him in grad school and worked for him at the Fed in Washington.(Bonjour Thomas!)

Give it a quick watch. I promise there's no quiz at the end.

Late Update: I've added the second part of the interview. Granted, it's a bit of a softball interview, but Fed Chairmen don't do interviews so it's still quite revealing and interesting.


Part 2 below.



CJS

10 comments :

Anonymous said...

OK, that actually was very informative and interesting. I miss 60 Minues.

Anonymous said...

While Bernanke attempts to explain the reasons for the economic meltdown, he fails to mention how much of the blame goes to the Federal Reserve and their easy money policies under Greenspan. Working productive Americans are bailing out the financial establishment that destroyed our economy along with 45% of the wealth in the world and now the American taxpayers and our children will be forced to live a far lower standard of living with reduced prosperity and opportunities due to this but only we pay the price.

Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. We believe a growing repudiate the debt movement could actually save our wealth and the markets and suggest this is a better alternative than Washington’s plans to monetize the debt in future years and tax and destroy our remaining wealth by depreciating the dollar.

The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts

PS I lived in Switzerland a mile from France and really miss Europe.

Anonymous said...

Please learn the difference between "to" and "too". Otherwise, good blogging.

Anonymous said...

That was just fairly good and, yes, informative as well.

French for a While said...

Believe it or not, the 'to' 'too' issue is a pet peeve of mine. I've made the mistake three times in the past week (corrected now). It's not a matter of knowing the difference, it's a matter of being a terrible proof-reader of my own writing. Good thing I have readers who can point out the mistakes. :)

French for a While said...

PS: The same issue applied with 'Vontoux' vs. 'Ventoux'. I believe it's referred to as a typo.

French for a While said...

Anonymous: fun comment! There certainly is enough blame to go around. But I suppose Bernanke would argue that since the financial systems drive the economy he has no choice but to prop them up (in fact, I think he makes that argument in the clip). Doesn't take away from your point, however, that some of the easy money policies in the past decade really got this ball rolling.

Ah, we love the good times, don't we?

Anonymous said...

Where can I find part 2?

Anonymous said...

This interview seems like a big PR move to me. But I suppose it helps to see that even the Fed Chairman is a regular guy who at least seems to be trying to do his best.

Anonymous said...

I don't care what the Fed says -- we should not be bailing out these massive banks with taxpayer money. Let them fail!