Bernanke vs. Meredith Whitney

The man that never saw it coming can't see it coming again. Please consider Bernanke Says ‘Not Obvious’ Asset Prices Misaligned.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said it’s “not obvious” that asset prices in the U.S. are out of line with underlying values after a 64 percent jump in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index from its March low.

“It is inherently extraordinarily difficult to know whether an asset’s price is in line with its fundamental value,” he said today in response to audience questions after a speech in New York. “It’s not obvious to me in any case that there’s any large misalignments currently in the U.S. financial system.”

“The best approach here if at all possible is to use supervisory and regulatory methods to restrain undue risk-taking and to make sure the system is resilient in case an asset-price bubble bursts in the future,” Bernanke said.

If that was the best approach then why didn't the Fed do it?

On the possibility of using interest rates to pop bubbles, “we can never say never,” Bernanke said today. “We have to keep an open mind.”

It's hard to keep an open mind when it is closed to anything but academic formulas and Keynesian and Monetarist claptrap that has no real life application.

The most ridiculous thing Bernanke said was "the Fed is 'attentive' to changes in the dollar’s value and “will help ensure that the dollar is strong.”

There is not a person on the planet that believes that.

Indeed, every time I hear Bernanke speak I wonder the same thing....

Bernanke: Why are we still listening to this guy?

The following video should make people think twice about listening to anything that Chairmen of the Fed Ben Bernanke says. It's a compilation of statements he made from 2005-2007 that will have your head spinning.



Meredith Whitney Calls For Double Dip Recession

Meredith Whitney says Stocks Overvalued, Recession Will Return.

Stocks are overvalued and the US economy is likely to fall back into a recession next year, well-known analyst Meredith Whitney told CNBC.

"I haven't been this bearish in a year," she said in a live interview. "I look at the board and every single stock from Tiffany (TIF) to Bank of America (BAC) to Caterpillar (CAT) is up. But there is no fundamental rooting as to why these names are up—particularly in the consumer space."



I am disappointed in one thing: Her comments about sideline cash were silly. Please see "Buy The Dip" Mentality Fully Entrenched for a discussion of sideline cash.

She is right on several things:

• The US consumer was going through the biggest credit contraction ever—even bigger than that during the Great Depression. "That credit contraction is accelerating," she said. "There's nowhere to hide at this point."
• The banking sector is not adequately capitalized and will need to raise more capital in the coming year.
• The residential real estate market is likely to worsen and remains a much bigger threat than the commercial property market. The government's mortgage modification program won't result in any major improvement in homeowners' ability to stay above water, she added.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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