Ben is In

Bloomberg is tallying up the Senate votes and reporting Helicopter Ben Bernanke is in by a good 66%.

Bloomberg yesterday interviewed 53 senators who aren’t on the Banking Committee, which voted 16-7 on Dec. 17 to recommend Bernanke’s nomination to the full Senate. Twenty-one lawmakers said they are inclined to vote for Bernanke, while four said they would oppose the central bank chief, giving him 37-12 support so far for a four-year term starting Feb. 1. Another 28 said they’re undecided or declined to comment.

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham were among senators saying they’ll support Bernanke, citing his response to the financial crisis. Senators from both major parties said they expect him to be confirmed, even with at least four lawmakers trying to block or delay the nomination.

“We were on the verge of a Great Depression, and I think he and others came up with some monetary policies that prevented us from going into a depression,” said Graham, who also backs a broad audit of the central bank. “He is worthy of renomination.”

Of the 77 senators who have voted, spoken with Bloomberg or publicly commented on their views, 43 are Democrats, 33 are Republicans and one is an independent. Democrats support Bernanke by a 26-1 margin, while Republicans are split 11-10 in the Fed chief’s favor. The chamber has 58 Democrats, 40 Republicans and two independents.

There are procedure holds on Bernanke's confirmation, one from Senator Bernie Sanders. It takes 60 votes to break a hold, but frankly this still appears like a done deal

Meanwhile the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission starts holding hearings in January. Strange isn't it? This late in the game, and after legislation is formed are they bothering to investigate causes?

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Just like the Bush Administration

When failure is rewarded. Shouldn't they be giving Ben a Freedom Award too, or something like that?

Wow, I didn't expect this from you

I think you're now the forth on EP to imply little difference between Bush/GOP and Obama/Dems.

I think corporate money, corruption ties, family favors, campaign contributions need to be made a top priority for exposure and reform.

Where is the accountability?

There has been NO accountability. Where is it? Can you name an major actor in this crisis who has been held accountable for their actions? And accountability could be a number of things - criminal, civil or just plain disgorgement of huge bonuses received during the build-up of bubble. The Nation this past week listed another obscure actor: John Dugan - A Master of Disaster. John Dugan is the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC defended predatory and subprime lenders instead of regulating them:

As head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Dugan played a leading role in gutting the consumer protection system, allowing big banks to take outrageous risks on the predatory mortgages that led to millions of foreclosures.

"For years, the OCC has had the power and the responsibility to protect both banks and consumers, and it has consistently thrown the consumer under the bus," says Harvard University Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. "The result has not only been no consumer protection but also a collapsed banking system. That is why we so urgently need a separate agency in Washington that is specifically focused on protecting families from credit tricks and traps."

There are a lot of big national banks that are being bailed out by the FDIC that were regulated by Dugan's OCC. But again NO accountability - he still has a job.

RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

Tar and Feather list

Rebel, how about creating a virtual "tar and feather" list.

Maybe I can even put together a flash where folks can tar and feather someone in cyberspace. ;)

Here's my tar and feather candidates:

1. Alan Greenspan
2. Thomas Friedman
3. credit ratings agencies
4. Congress with a handful of exemptions
5. Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama administrations
6. Salaried Lobbyists
7. Larry Kudlow
8. Phil Gramm
9. Jagdish Bhagwati
10. Keith Olbermann

Curious. Why Keith Olberman?

Besides being melodramatic he's pretty innocuous. I would've had Rupert Murdoch on their before him.

RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

I think he's an idiot

Firstly, he's a sportscaster and it shows. Secondly, his daily name calls, often vaguely hidden as simply personal vendetta. He has this beyond partisan superficial view, he's inaccurate, he cherry picks some thing from others and engages continuously in personal attack, on air, he's gotten his paid for commentator's fired because they dared say something he didn't personally approve of...and he's supposedly a jerk to women to boot, evidenced by the beyond belief misogyny shown to Hillary Clinton during the primary.

Also to point out that any political flavor can have it's embarrassing asses.

Seriously, as much as I despised the Bush administration, glued to the TV watching the corporate takeover of the nation and the beyond belief snow job when invading Iraq by all of the media....when Olbermann did his "special comments" on Bush, I just would cringe in embarrassment....

that guy is simply not Edward R. Murrow and it's so embarrassing to watch him take Murrow's famous speech against the "communist witch hunt" Congress was doing and defile it to such an ongoing degree.

Seriously, MSNBC reruns that stupid, information void show over and over while Dylan Ratigan, who has some very good information, does not get rerun.

Remember, we're non-partisan so one must consider the virtual tar and feather for all points of misinformation and masking smears....that avoid the real details and facts, esp. on economics.

Your last paragraph

is the reason why I would add Rupert Murdoch and Faux News including Faux News Business.

RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.

very true

they kind of are matching duals of each other. Maybe we can have a joint category for media spin machines of different flavors.

Hey, just my little personal list....I said this as a joke, but now I'm wondering if this might be a good outlet and a lot of fun for people's rage and frustrations...

hmmmmm.....

I agree

It seems to be more of a top/bottom issue than a left/right issue.

I read once (sorry can't remember the source) that Obama/Bush are 2 waiters for the same chef.

I'm pretty la-de-da in comments today

but getting a little more serious, it might be interesting to plot a graph of all sorts of major economic policy and to note how much of it has zero change from the past administration in practice.