Benny's Words of Woe

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, is puzzling. He is the first chairman to hold a press conference, but it is anyone's guess as to why he does it. The public is skeptical of central bankers - and rightfully so. Ben has been indirectly taxing the American populace over the last several years by printing and distributing money. He has authorized trillions of dollars in bail-out loans to various firms, and he also intiated enormous treasury-buying programs that cost hundreds of billions. After all of this, he still seems to think that telling the American public that the economy is recovering "slower than expected" is a good idea. Granted, the public is skeptical of bankers in general after the financial crisis, and some transparency is appreciated by many. But how does he expect that telling people his plan is not working will encourage them to go out and spend? The greatest obstacle that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve face today is a lack of investor and consumer confidence. Despite rock-bottom interest rates, investors don't want to invest; the economic climate is too uncertain. Similarly, despite the fact that money is losing value by sitting in the bank, consumers do not want to go out and spend. It's a psychological recession right now more than an economic one.