Ben Bernanke leaves behind a disastrous track record that furthered collapse

Ben Bernanke finished up his second term at the Federal Reserve this week leaving behind quite a mess. No, the former Fed Chair does not deserve “our appreciation” nor did he help the United States economy during turbulent times. Instead, he deserves this line from Edward G. Robinson in “Double Indemnity.”

“What’s the matter; don’t you know how to open the door? Just put your hand on the knob, turn it to the left, now pull it towards you. That’s the boy.”

Indeed, Bernanke leaves behind quite a legacy, a disastrous one that is. The Washington establishment and mainstream media are applauding Bernanke this week for his decisive action and policies that are only helping out Wall Street. It’s quite certain that he will be celebrated as a hero in the history books, much in the same way President Roosevelt has been portrayed for mimicking and expanding on his predecessor’s economic policies.

Of course, the United States won’t be better off with Janet Yellen at the helm. Supporting everything her boss did, she failed to foresee the signs of a financial crisis and she still fails to understand the origins of the economic collapse. Unfortunately, the U.S. economy will still falter and nothing will be improved, especially with President Obama in office for another three years.

With that being said, let’s take a brief look at Bernanke’s track record (surely we don’t want to repeat history soon after he exits the central bank).

Soon after he was appointed as head of the most powerful organization in the world, he decided to bail out his pals on Wall Street and give money to the “too big to fail” financial institutions. Here’s a snapshot of the numbers:

–         $7.7 trillion in bailouts throughout the United States financial system

–          $3 trillion (likely more) to foreign banks throughout Europe and Asia

–         A total of $16 trillion of money handed out to various entities (GAO minor audit)

Following the height of the economic collapse, the Fed purchased Treasury bonds in order to maintain artificially low interest rates at record lows. This hurt Americans’ savings accounts all over the country, particularly seniors. Yellen even admitted this and dismissed it as something unimportant during testimony in November because it benefitted everyone else. (It did?)

“But you know, if we want to get back to business as usual and a normal monetary policy and normal interest rates, I would say we need to do that by getting the economy back to normal,” stated Yellen. “Take into account the broader array of interests they have in a strong economy, they would see that these policies — even though they may harm them in one respect — are broadly beneficial to them as I believe they are to all Americans.”

Due to the Fed’s ineptness, one-quarter of all Baby Boomers and Generation Xers will now have insufficient funds in their retirement years because of the Fed’s hurtful monetary policies.

On top of seniors, everyone else involved in the stock market will feel the monster’s consequences because the Fed has created and is still creating an immense stock market bubble that will eventually burst. This won’t hurt bankers on Wall Street, though, because they’re raking in record profits and handing out large bonuses all the time because of the Fed’s moneyprinting.

Yellen will begin her tenure as Fed Chair with a $4 trillion balance sheet. It’s likely that Yellen will just increase the figure each year – it’s projected to hit $6 trillion in the next few years.  This money creation is the definition of massive inflation. The questions that have to be asked are: What are the prices going to be for these mortgage-backed securities and these Treasuries? How much will the Treasury have to make up with the Fed’s losses? How does the Fed continue to get away with this?

What’s more likely to happen by the end of Yellen’s term: a complete economic collapse or a collapse in the U.S. dollar? Both?

It’s time to buy gold (or bitcoin, if you like) and hold on because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

With Yellen’s terrible track record, the only thing that must be said is what Edward G. Robinson uttered at the beginning of this piece.

“What’s the matter; don’t you know how to open the door? Just put your hand on the knob, turn it to the left, now pull it towards you. That’s the boy.”