Alan Blinder's Defense of Bernanke

In Defense of Ben Bernanke

Alan Blinder says:

What the Fed proposes to do is neither foolproof nor perfect. Frankly, it's not the policy I would choose.

Great defense, lol.

As I've written on this page, I'd like the Fed to purchase private securities and to reduce the interest rate it pays on reserves, even turning it negative. The latter would blast reserves out of banks into some productive uses.

Some productive uses? Some?

Perhaps we can build even more banks, shopping malls, restaurants, and houses. They'll fit in quite nicely with the massive glut we already have. Won't even notice them no doubt. Will they be productive? Who knows? Who cares?

I ate at the Yankee Diner in Renton, WA on Saturday (it had been years since my last visit). It was about 6pm. We got "rock star" parking near the front door. We had our choice of many, many available tables. You know what they really need? More competition. I suggest Ben Bernanke works on a way to build "some" restaurants right up next to them. Prosperity for all!

This is not to be confused with the Yankee Diner that was once in Ballard, WA. It's gone.

May 14, 2007
The Yankee Diner - CLOSED

Now closed, and will eventually be the location of a Silver Cloud Inn, I am missing the Yankee Diner on these gorgeous days we've had recently.

January 22, 2008
Work to start on Silver Cloud

The project, a 170-room, six-story Silver Cloud hotel, was approved with a number of conditions attached, such as the hotel must serve primarily people who work in the industries that it will surround.

Inns? Yes! We clearly needed more inns to serve the local community's workers. Our economy must have really been booming for that to happen. In hindsight, let's see how that worked out though.

October 28, 2010
Development of Ballard's first major hotel back on track

Earlier this month, Diamond Parking and Pacific Fisheries Shipyard were asked to remove their vehicles from the parking lot in front of the shuttered diner at 5425 Shilshole Ave N.W. by Nov. 15, according to a number of sources, including Pacific Fisheries General Manager Doug Dixon. The groundbreaking date has been given variously as Dec. 1 and Dec. 15.

That's fantastic. It took more than three years just to get those cars out of the parking lot in front of that shuttered diner. That said, construction is apparently back on track now though thanks to the Fed doing the exact same thing it was doing back in the middle of the decade. As Yogi Berra would say, "It's déjà vu all over again."

Way to go Ben Bernanke! Stick with what (doesn't) work(s)!


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Once those cars are all gone from the parking lot, the sky is the limit!