Bloomberg TOP Bias of the Day
For today's gross bias on your Bloomberg TOP function, look no further than: "Bernanke, Possible Greenspan Successor, Toes White House Line."
This story's all but stated theme is that Ben Bernanke has all but abandoned his integrity by not criticising the Bush administration's economic policies (which he has had a hand in devising) all the while being the leading candidate to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman. The article opens up with Bernanke's attractive attributes: he "was fascinated by libertarianism" and "spoke his mind." Apparently, by going to work for the Bush administration, no such behavior is possible for poor Ben. He must be "buttoned down and buttoned up" (yeah, I said "huh?" too.), "cautious" and he might have some "difficulty recognizing" his former self.
To be fair, the authors line up heavy hitters Milton Friedman and Robert Solow to say that Bernanke is qualified to succeed Greenspan, although there is no discussion of actual policy and results that might merit such an endorsement. (Friedman is a strong advocate of low taxes and reduced government regulation of the economy and has supported this administrations key economic policies.) Saving their one reference to actual policy, the authors quote Alan Blinder (notable in comparison to Friedman and Solow by his lack of distinguishment in the field of economics) thusly:
"Keeping himself out of trouble is a crucial thing because part of his current job description is to defend the economic policies of this administration, which to my mind, in many ways, are indefensible."
So Bernanke is defending the indefensible to get a plum job. It couldn't possibly be that he is defending sound economic policies that he himself has advised the President on (and that economists of the stature of Milton Friedman agree with). Nope. Perfidy, disingenuousness and professional/ethical compromise simply MUST be at work here. Thank you Al Hunt, I was duped into believing that a qualified economist was giving sound advice to the President that was helping our economy.
N.B. Check out just how indefensible this administration's policies have been here.
This story's all but stated theme is that Ben Bernanke has all but abandoned his integrity by not criticising the Bush administration's economic policies (which he has had a hand in devising) all the while being the leading candidate to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman. The article opens up with Bernanke's attractive attributes: he "was fascinated by libertarianism" and "spoke his mind." Apparently, by going to work for the Bush administration, no such behavior is possible for poor Ben. He must be "buttoned down and buttoned up" (yeah, I said "huh?" too.), "cautious" and he might have some "difficulty recognizing" his former self.
To be fair, the authors line up heavy hitters Milton Friedman and Robert Solow to say that Bernanke is qualified to succeed Greenspan, although there is no discussion of actual policy and results that might merit such an endorsement. (Friedman is a strong advocate of low taxes and reduced government regulation of the economy and has supported this administrations key economic policies.) Saving their one reference to actual policy, the authors quote Alan Blinder (notable in comparison to Friedman and Solow by his lack of distinguishment in the field of economics) thusly:
"Keeping himself out of trouble is a crucial thing because part of his current job description is to defend the economic policies of this administration, which to my mind, in many ways, are indefensible."
So Bernanke is defending the indefensible to get a plum job. It couldn't possibly be that he is defending sound economic policies that he himself has advised the President on (and that economists of the stature of Milton Friedman agree with). Nope. Perfidy, disingenuousness and professional/ethical compromise simply MUST be at work here. Thank you Al Hunt, I was duped into believing that a qualified economist was giving sound advice to the President that was helping our economy.
N.B. Check out just how indefensible this administration's policies have been here.
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:06 PM
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