got to hear the new money man Ben Bernanke talk this a.m.

waiting for W.J. to come on.

he spoke in the money language so I haven't a clue what he was saying but I did note two things:

his endless talk was full of maybes, ifs, possiblys, may or may nots, generally, and it wasn't a US problem it was a global problem words.

and the second thing is what happened when the first question was asked. the large stage was filled with 2 rows of tables full of people, with the podium in the center.

the first question was asked, in money talk, don't ask me what.

and as the camera slowly went from the far end of the stage to the middle and on to the other end of the stage. panning slowly I saw most everyone sitting there with a "cat who ate the canery" smile on their faces.

didn't see these smiles for further questions.

wish I knew what that was about.

after the questions dinner was served. Ben didn't stay, he left.

caused the crowd to look like "cat who ate canary." :shrug: I didn't understand...

You said:

and the second thing is what happened when the first question was asked. the large stage was filled with 2 rows of tables full of people, with the podium in the center.

the first question was asked, in money talk, don't ask me what.

language which I don't know.

that's what I was asking. what was the first question that got those smiles?

he seemed to qualify his every statement. I started wondering if he wasn't Greenspan with a different voice but with less sureness than Greenspan used to speak with his mostly numbers and statistics jibberish.

I had to laugh when he said that China needs to encourage it's people to buy more of their own goods so that their economy isn't as dependent on Americans buying their goods!

HA! That's a real Bushism.... It's the Chinese Government's fault that Americans are buying so much from them that our Trade Imbalance is through the roof. These Bushies only know how to blame rather than tell the truth.

He isn't worried about mortgage debt either....just figures it will all work out. :eyes:

particularly in this kind of forum. None of that is a big concern.

China does need to stimulate its own consumption, and it seems to be happening, albeit slowly. I didn't look at it as making an excuse. We're doing China a tremendous service by buying all those goods, and Bernanke was encouraging China to return the favor rather than just building up their trade balance. Pretty standard stuff.

As far as the mortgage debt, does, Bernanke really can't say anything else. It would not be responsible. Can you imagine the effect if he said he WAS worried?

.. the Federal Reserve Chairman talking with more weasel-words per minute than anyone else for a couple simple reasons.

1) smart people (and you have to be smart to reach this post, ok :)) know that the world economy is too complex for anyone to really understand and

2) the Chairman cannot signal what he really thinks because investors will over-react.

Like Greenspan before him, we can expect a long line of "on the other hand"s, basically forever :)

:D...Can't imagine too many folks rushing out to buy it except some University Librarians....

nt