The Selling of America

Mr Bernanke is a good man. A little pessimistic but that’s for the best. His instincts are wrong as a rule but I suspect he’s so far out of the loop, in the sense that the real players are part of a loop, or a ring as it was called in the twenties before the cartel busters did their great work, it’s hard to take any notice of him at all.

The whip hand, perhaps it’s a lasso, is held and cracked by Paulson who seems ideally suited for the super cop, role. Hair cropped to its roots, or bald, ferocious, barking mad, towering and demented-one can almost see him pounding away at Rodney King, thinking poor old Rodney was gold, or a contrarian, or a GATA member.

But Mr Bernanke is Fed Chairman and is of the opinion, three days after the Wall Street Journal said we are in recession, the possibility of a recession couldn’t be ruled out.

"It now appears likely that real gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

Bernanke clung to the distinction that the "contraction" may not turn into a "recession." But added economists say this was exceedingly rare.

People pay good money not to have to listen to, let alone read such blather so I won’t trouble you with any more, for the moment, but return for a to Hank Paulson – super cop.