How come every time Ben Bernanke speaks, we first judge what he says to be stupid and unresponsive to the economy, and then 15 minutes later we begin a sustained rally that tends to last for several days?
How come this man is constantly derided for his work and his statements when I can tell you, having traded through the entire Greenspan regime, he is doing much more and is helping much more than anyone realizes? Under Greenspan, there was a degree of sanity in the White House and Congress, yet Greenspan still managed to create several bubbles in attempts to keep the economy going, even as the aftermath of the bubbles was far worse than anything he did that was good for the economy.
Under Bernanke, we ended the Great Recession, saved the banks and have kept rates down to allow balance sheets to be fixed, so that a downturn isn't as significant as it would be otherwise, which is why I have held that the 2008 scenario should be off the table.
Still, he gets no respect, particularly in the hair-trigger futures pits, where the percentage "right" is dramatically wrong. If the futures traders were pitchers, you would pull them in the first inning.
The notion that this rally is anything but Bernanke is fanciful.
The guy is money. Maybe we will realize that when he's gone, even as we regard Greenspan as money now, despite his checkered record.
