The Three Phases of Bernanke

Ben Bernanke whose overall characterization is probably best said as “Helicopter Ben” has actually in his terms as Fed Chairman played two roles so far:

1) Ben the Savior is number one. He did save the economy with QE 1 as Congress’s response at $ 800 billion for infrastructure and such was way to small, by some measures, if you look back at the NASA program, ten times to small. 

2) Ben the Manipulator is the second role.  When Congress blinked and blinked and blinked, Ben felt a need to provide cover for them, the problem is that his actions at this level flowed money to the wrong people, the funny money people who have been pushing it into the third stock market bubble in 14 years.  Trickle down to main street has been virtually non-existent.

3) Ben the Imploder.  Thankfully for him, he will probably be out of office when this realization hits.  His use of language, which he no doubt learned from Greenspan, will probably push back the real effects until he is gone.  You will note that the CNBC fat cat guests recently are trying to spin the story that everything is pretty good now and the Fed can start easing out without an effect.  That game will go on until Janet Yellen gets to smell the pot.