Free food!!!

Aha! I got your attention didn't I?

Again, I was reading an online article in the San Francisco Chronicle which was about the chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. He is apparently a scholar of the Great Depression and, as Carolyn Said writes, "observers say Bernanke's vigorous responses spring directly from his knowledge of the ultimate economic catastrophe." Bernanke is applying the same tactics that Roosevelt executed during the Great Depression; "unorthodox approaches, some with trial and error." Some of his actions included rescuing the insurance giant AIG "in exchange for an ownership stake," and brokering Bear Stearns. Bernanke even began working with the Treasury Department.

I have to say, I am pretty confident in this man. Although he is pursuing some points with trial and error, at least he is doing something, and he is using his knowledge of the Great Depression to credit his actions. According to Said, "Bernanke is taking the opposite approach from what the Federal Reserve did before and during the Great Depression. He is giving gas to the economy by increasing liquidity." Bernanke is flooding the economy with cash and although he is nicknamed "Helicopter Ben" for showering the country with money, economists trust his judgment due to his large knowledge. David Moss, an economic history professor at Harvard Business School, praises Bernanke's aggressive approaches and meticulous study of the Great Depression. "He has an appreciation for the complexities and reality of what was going on then, as much or more than any other scholar," Moss states in Said's interview. Wow, I mean come on, it's a Harvard professor of Business!!!! It doesn't get much better than that...unless you are the Federal government.

Just last Friday, the Stock Market was officially nationalized. The Federal government will now buy financial shares and bank stocks. Last Wednesday the SEC ended its ban on short-selling after the attempt to stop the dramatic declining of the Market had failed. The American Banking Association demanded the ban be returned if their stocks started to plummet again. But according to Robert Folsom of the Elliotwave International, "instead of reinstating the short-selling ban, the Treasury will now proceed to buy bank shares. Needless to say, all the stock market news now proclaims that today's 936-point, 'biggest one-day point gain ever' in the Dow Industrials was because 'governments and central banks took aggressive steps to unlock the flow of credit."'

Hope seems to stay alive as today the Dow rose 936 points making it the biggest single day percentage gain in 75 years, according to Michael M. Grynbaum of the New York Times. Bernanke and his extreme solutions with the Treasury Department seem to have output some positive effects; or this could be the omen of another Black Tuesday, the calm before the storm, history repeating another Great Depression.

While the "nationalizing" seems to be a movement towards socialism, the Federal government continues to step in to the U.S. economy. Money is being poured into the Market, but it seems the government is overstepping their boundaries by saving large corporate tycoons with taxpayers' money. What do you think America? Are we giving the government too much control with our economy? Do you think this positive gain is evidence for condoning the government's actions? Is Ben Bernanke our savior from a economic meltdown? Or is this just the last bit of hope squeezed out of the Market before disaster? I want to know what you think America.