I like this Godfather-like picture of Ben Bernanke in the front cover of this week's New York Times Magazine. So cool, as if the whole US economy depends on his words.
The article is also very educating. It gives you a glimpse on how a central banker has to deal with unemployment-inflation tradeoff, and beat the market expectation. Hopefully, amidst the now enormous pressure from US public and media, he would not get mental breakdown like Britney Spears --a very sorry of her.
Too bad he isn't Jewish. Unlike Greenspan, Bernanke's decissions have (at least until now) only minor effect on market. It seems that the market doesn't believe in him as much as it believes in Greenspan. Still remember that the 25 bps cut in Dec 11 has no impact on market. Ck,ck,ck.
ReplyDeleteIka, what does monetary policy have to do with him (or anyone) being a Jewish? Would it be the same as saying that (in)effective BI monetary policy depends on its Governor being a Javanese/Chinese descent/woman/Beatles fan/anything but macroeconomics or market reasoning?
ReplyDeleteSory Pak, I didn't mean to be a racist. It's just a myth in my office that Jewish usually have a more important place in market's heart (maybe because they are so smart with money, and that's why Greenspan's opinion usually defeats Bernanke's). In my opinion market doesnt always think rationally. And I do believe that market do have more faith in one group of people than the other. Maybe that's why one decision is more effective than the other. Just my opinion...
ReplyDeleteActually, Ben Bernanke is jewish but not that it makes any difference.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_bernanke
As Rizal said monetary policy does not have anything to do with racial background.