This is from 2015, but it really shows how disconnected both parties are, particularly the republicans, when it comes to economics.
Ben Bernanke Is Fed Up
Here is some of his thoughts:
Ben Bernanke Is Fed Up
Here is some of his thoughts:
They saw inflation where it did not exist and, when the official data did not bear out their predictions, invoked conspiracy theories. They denied that monetary or fiscal policy could support job growth, while still working to direct federal spending to their own districts. They advocated discredited monetary systems, like the gold standard.
Like anyone who understands the issue, Bernanke notes that refusing to raise the debt limit isn't about controlling spending, it's about government not paying its bills: "It is like a family running up large credit card bills and then refusing to pay." We can forgive the public for not understanding this, but not its elected representatives. To Bernanke, nothing justifies taking the economy hostage by refusing to raise the debt limit. He's right; the best thing to do with the debt limit is scrap it so that government can pay its bills on time, unimpeded by political shenanigans.
President Barack Obama and the Congress resolved the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis by enacting the Budget Control Act, which imposed tough spending limits and required further "sequestration" spending cuts when Congress couldn't agree on a deficit-reduction plan. Bernanke "was relieved to see a resolution of the crisis, but worried about whether the fragile economic recovery could withstand the austerity measures that Congress seemed intent on imposing."
In Bernanke's diagnosis, reflecting his mainstream economic thinking, fiscal policymakers put the recovery at risk when, after enacting Obama's stimulus package in early 2009, they shifted into austerity mode. At the same time, state-level balanced-budget requirements forced a sharp drop in public-sector employment. (Typically, government employment rises in a recovery.) Tight fiscal policies, Bernanke wrote, "were arguably offsetting much of the effect of our monetary efforts" and making it difficult to achieve the Fed's full employment goal.
It wasn't pretty, and the economic recovery is taking much longer than it needed to. But the recovery wasn't derailed, partly because Republican leaders haven't wanted another debt-ceiling showdown or government shutdown for fears that it would hurt them at the polls.
But who knows what this week's meltdown among House Republicans over their next set of leaders portends?