"Did You Hear About the Fed?"



This ascerbic and hilarious cartoon by Malekenoms is done in a question and answer format between two bears who speak with computer-generated voices and broken English. The first bear starts off the process by asking the second bear, "Did you hear about the Fed?" and then proceeds to explain to the second bear why the Fed is engaging in quantitative easing.

The policy name "quantitative easing" is described as a euphemism for printing "a ton of money." When the second bear asks the first bear, why not just calling it "the printing money," the first bear responds that the Fed calls in quantitative easing because printing money is seen as "the last refuge of a failed economic empire and banana republics, and the Fed doesn't want to admit this is their only idea."

The bears then belittle the notion that there is deflation when prices are rising everywhere. The the first bear also lampoons the Fed's credibility and claims it has been wrong about everything and right about nothing.

The bears also spoof Ben Bernanke as "the Ben Bernank." It blasts the New York Fed's relationship with Goldman Sachs and the fact "the William Dudley," head of the New York Fed, used to work at Goldman Sachs. It ridicules the Fed for going to Goldman Sachs to buy U.S. Treasuries at higher prices rather than going to the Treasury direct so that Goldman Sachs can make a lot of money on the deal.

Charlie Gasparino, citing this cartoon, takes issue with the growing scapegoating of Ben Bernanke in a column in The Daily Beast at this link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-17/ben-bernanke-the-economys-fall-guy/

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