Dear John: I have been reading The Post longer than you have been writing for it. I read your commentary just before I close The Post for the night!
You recently wrote about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and it was one of your very best. I wish that you had his job.
The man is simply printing money as if it were Monopoly money, and this will definitely come back to haunt all of us. Thank you for your honesty. S.H.
Dear S.H. Wait, first things first.
What you are saying — it appears to me — is that my column helps you get to sleep!
OK, with that in mind, I will try not to be boring.
Yes, Ben Bernanke has been printing money and calling it Quantitative Easing. And he now has most of the rest of the world doing the same thing. The US dollar has held up remarkably well only because it’s the least ugly of the ugly currencies. And for that we should be grateful.
But unaccustomed as I am to defending Bernanke — or Alan Greenspan before him — I will do so now (for Ben, anyway).
Bernanke has had an impossible job. For the past dozen years, Congress and the White House have been reckless with US finances. We didn’t have enough rainy-day money set aside in 2007 when we needed it because we were goaded into expensive fights in far corners of the world.
Now, when we need to spend on social programs and the like, we also find ourselves having to cut back for deficit purposes.
Greenspan was a financial disgrace for the way he left the US economy. Bernanke did his best to help rescue the economy in 2007/08 but didn’t know when to ease up. His stimulus of the economy (low rates) has been hurting growth these past few years.
And I hope he’s right about the effectiveness of Quantitative Easing — because if he’s wrong, the worst of our situation is ahead of us.
And no thanks to the Fed job. I wouldn’t want a pain in the rear like me criticizing my every move.
Dear John: Is it time to fill a hotel conference room with our Washington politicians, ply them with pots of coffee and wait for them to need to use the restroom? Maybe then they will come up with a deal. I say yes. R.M.
Dear R.M. It’s time for Americans to get p.o.’d! But your solution would only have our elected officials soiling themselves.
Look, there will be some sort of deal on taxes and spending cuts. That’s an absolute certainty because eventually the financial markets will revolt and the politicians will be forced to deal with each other.
When stock prices tank — and they’ve already started — and the bond market sends US interest rates soaring, urine isn’t the only thing the folks in Washington are going to have to deal with. They’ll be needing to launder both sides of their pants.
The bigger problem, however, is that our political system is looking very incompetent. “Broken” would be a good word, and it could use an overhaul.
It’s great to have checks and balances in our government. Two parties, two houses of Congress, a president, etc.
But the whole damn thing is out of balance right now. Each day that Americans have to hear about fiscal cliffs and debt-limit negotiations erodes confidence.
It’s a mess. And anyone who thinks this is going to be handled quickly is kidding himself.
Maybe if we put the Washington negotiators in a room and passed around a joint, they’d become more cooperative.
Send your questions to Dear John, The NY Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, NY, NY 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.