the closest thing to a hero is ben bernanke.closest thing we have got to the guy walking on the moon. not a hero but with the financial markets today, the man who could promise a rescue then actually deliver. on a day we say by two legendary performance because research time and when year with buying all the treasury bonds seeking get his mitts on. what is more he just makes a super hero promise keeping them low three years. we have a hard enough time getting leaders to stick to their promises. they seem out of this world of the expectations are to keep financially safe. if only neil armstrong had it so easy. he just walked on the moon. this guy walks on water. what is appropriate to say mitt romneyhe

and ben bernanke -- ben bernanke printing more money. the dow at 1396.middle east but more to ben bernanke. three higher today. and the middle east play as well as ben bernanke. $99.73 up $1.42. and $3.87 for regular $4.12. ben bernanke print. the market's rally. and listen to this from augusta. >> he is a new member. should be a new person in the chairman's position. someone who shared my economic views. >> kevin brady joins us from capitol hill. >> thanks for having me. stuart: if it was president romney and he replaced ben bernanke and replaced him with someone who wants to stop printing money interest rates will go straight up and our economy would go straight down. >> governor romney. has the right to choose a fed chairman who agrees with him. i think governor romney heads this issue on target for two reasons, the fed actions yesterday seeming rebuke to the obama administration. the fed still feels obliged to try to stimulate the economy. secondly, long-term interest rates and liquidity are not the roadblocks to the economy. while you are getting a

the ben bernanke bounce continues. a lot of people thought there might be sell-offs and people taking a profit on what happened with the ben bernanke bounds. the bouncing ball continues. we will see what happens over the weekend but all the indices higher and didn't get the bump it did yesterday but the fact that there was confidence above 50 on the dow 50 points to not the same percentage, on the s&p and nasdaq. almost a full percentage point, doing extremely well and small and midsize cats as well. the largest gainer of all these indexes, small and mid-size cavs. when the bells ring that is what action begins. we have a full pack our. reagan budget director david stockman will tell us why he is on warpath against the fed and starting to question whether capitalism itself can survive post ben bernanke. four years since the collapse of lehman brothers. you have somebody who says he found the next lehman brothers and you worked here when it was spiraling down. larry mcdonald coming up. we will tell you what drove the ma

gerri: i want to talk about ben bernanke and the fed. listen to this from ben bernanke. >> to fiscal cliff isn't addressed, don't think our tools are strong enough to offset the effects of a major fiscal shock so it is really important for the fiscal policymakers to work together to find a solution for that. gerri: what do you make of the fed's move? it struck me as overreaching in the extreme especially when he himself says we really don't have the tools to deal with unemployment. >> i think he means we the fed. we reduce the increase in government spending a little bit with the sequester. that is a good thing for the economy. you'd are you high you allocate reductions in the increase but that is helpful to the economy. the other is a massive tax increase of $500 billion over the next year. $100 billion in increased spending and they panic. talking raising taxes 500 le in dollars next year and for the next 10 years. that is very damaging for the economy, we should not confuse spending reduction with tax increases, the alternative minimu

so why does mitt romney think that ben bernanke is dead wrong?ell, the two rounds that are referred to as quantitative easing, ben bernanke's fed has injected $2.3 trillion into the economy. that is $2.3 trillion that did not exist before the fed created them, a bernanke said something inkr incredible that he has never done before and he is trying to prof why the $2.3 trillion has worked, because it has created 2 million private sector jobs created as a direct result of the easy money. that is interesting, because that is an interesting link between jobs and how much he spent, because that is not a cheap cost per job, because it is more than a cool $1 million per job, and 1.2 million to be exact. and repeat that, because it did take a second to digest it. 1.2 million per job, and so for those who are keeping track, we are not counting the president's extra $2 trillion or so in stimulus in that money, just the fed's money, divided by the number of jobs. history though may prove that ben bernanke is completely right, because as i said this has neve

>> ben bernanke is trying to stimulate the u.s. economy. and in qe3, what he will do is create money and use that money to buy mortgage-backed securities. >> paul: what is it supposed to accomplish? >> the goal is to push down long-term interest rates and by that he thinks that people who have-- investors who would otherwise be buying bonds and capturing a higher interest rate will say, oh, there's no return there, i'm going look for something that gives me a higher return and hoping they will employ that capital in a real economy and that will stimulate growth. >> okay, so, third time the charm here, dan? he tried it twice and might have worked arguably the first time to get us out of the panic, the second time not much obviously. but what about this time? >> what reason is there to believe it would happen this time? >> he said this time it's unlimited. not going to end. every year, 40 billion a month right now, if that doesn't work, we'll buy another 40 and we'll buy another and another until it finally works. >> two things have to happen

then which mandate does ben bernanke choose? >> yeah, that's something rick santelli has been talking about today. what are you expecting next week, rick? >> i think from a data side, i always enjoy when we get a couple housing numbers, existing home sales, starts. that's going to be good. i also want to see how the market digests what happened yesterday with the fed and what is ongoing with regard to europe. i haven't been or wouldn't think that we'd see a big correction in stocks. although, i'll tell you by the behavior today, i'd be a little more cautious. feds and central banks around the world have always tried to leave their imprint on interest rates. i find it fascinating that the market, despite all the ownership that the fed has in terms of inventory of treasuries, for example, to see rates move up as much as they are, knowing how many out there are still long makes me a bit nervous that this could gain momentum to the up side. i don't know if 2% is going to be challenged, but i think based whoon i hear from investors,

do you think that ben bernanke is taking sides in this election? a cynic and i don't like central banking. i don't, jump at chances to bash bernanke. i thought it would, say that, he is probably more worried about his reputation and he think he honestly wants to prove his economic theories work because he put a lifetime into it. and think of much time and effort he put into studying the depression. if i'm right and he is wrong, it destroyed his whole thesis of the last 30 or 40 years. he thinks more about that whether he does get reappointed. he wants to be proven right on these issues shoes. i think he is truly academician rather than a party player and only doing this for obama. but there is a history that federal reserve chairman have in the past tried to accommodate the president. david: it happened a couple times. perhaps not this one. the middle east finally on the middle east, does it make sense for us to give money to countries in the middle east that can't or won't protect our own embassies there? >> i don't think it makes any sense to giv

say ben bernanke. you are saying i shouldn't do what i think my job is, to be a reporter, and get as much information -- you understand i do my job and i'm proud of how i do my job. i don't care what you guys think, at the end of the day, guys. at the end of the day my job is to guide viewers and investors, give them the best heads up policy i can on what the fed policy will be, and i did it right. >> i wasn't even trying. normally i would be taking credit. >> that's what i'm saying, joe. >> you to a great job. >> my point was, steve. my point was -- >> what's your point? >> for a long time i think your view on whether there was a qe3, was based on whether there should have been a qe3. and i think that now we're seeing this. you heard kevin speaking -- >> can we -- can you listen for one second? we have breaking news that we're going to be announcing right now the markets are going to want to hear. there is a change in the dow jones industrial average this morning. you are bringing out one component, p

these are remarkable moves directly related to ben bernanke. there's bernanke.he first question he was asked, he said buy lennar. second question, buy leisman. >> aren't they already discou discounting a significant -- >> did ben bernanke reiterate -- these are what i heard. you may have heard the actual answers like qe3 and twist. i was hearing buy lowe's. even lowe's is going to go higher. some of the later questions about lumber liquidliquidators. you might have heard that to be about inflation. >> what i still wonder is whether he's really going to be able to help people buy a home or whether he is just going to help investors. if that money will really translate into something. >> wells fargo wants you to have a paycheck. self-employed people, by the way, are having a tremendously difficult time getting refinanced. self-employed people, doctors, lawyers, they are the ones that have -- they were -- remember paul taylor? >> you could do 95% loan to value. >> 110 loan -- >> but the point is, are the banks going to extend more credit? hey, let's give some mortg

plus, if ben bernanke thinks the economy is so bad that he had to act so quickly and dramatically, then the question becomes can mitt romney walk through the bad economy door that mr. bernanke has now opened? we'll get to that later in the show. now, let's turn back to our other breaking news story of the night. the u.s. downgraded by rating agency egan-jones. they say qe-3 is the reason for the downgrade. now, since bernanke pulled the trigger on qe-3, markets have gained almost 300 points. the achilles' heel in all this? king dollar. that's what egan-jones talked about. we'll get back to that story. i want to break down the numbers because this is an interesting story. stay with me on this. this is the exchange value of the u.s. dollar, the trade weighted u.s. dollar. and down here we start with the first qe -- i'm sorry, the second qe which was november 2010. notice how the dollar fell sharply with qe-2, not qe-1, but qe-2. that hurt consumer incomes and wound up hurting the me. my point is there's such big numbers here, let's go back and look at this. we have ending of qe-2, the end

>> well, we're not sure either as is ben bernanke. you know, this will depend upon the period between november and january and who's elected. i suppose, but eventually, the cliff, we won't see a wily coyote over the cliff and falling down into the deep canyon. i think it's going to be resolved, but there's going to be some negative drag in term of the economy with potentially higher tax rates for the rich and potentially lower spending in some areas. so fiscally, the economy needs to get an injection of adrenaline just like ben bernanke has provided this week. >> so, you sent out a tweet at the end of the week. buy gold, buy a house. tell me the imact of this. are you saying you want to buy hard assets? >> i think this is the era of reflation or attempted reflation. what ben bernanke is doing is basically writing checks. it's hard to imagine that from the standpoint of main street, but they're going to be writing 500 billion to a trillion dollars worth of checks over the next year or two. that increases prices. reflates the economy. t

in the hot seat its leaders are back from vacation so we will talk about it plus in the wake of ben bernanke he is jackson hole speech there is a debate raging amongst economists about whether the u.s. is unemployment problems are structural or cyclical meaning this. the problem is not that jobs aren't growing the problem is not that the labor market is stuck the problem is that the economy is good. so some of those in that latter camp argue inflation is low so the fed should do more to help with the john situation but we'll look at this assumption about inflation with bob english who is in studio and he'll tell us how to factor in the role played by shadow banking plus the political establishment buys first of four with the d.n.c. getting underway today after the r n c wrapped up last week at a time when distrust in political institutions though has been eroded by malfeasance corruption dysfunction are students at harvard preparing for their entry into the ruling class with cheating in their intro to congress clowes we'll tell you about it let's get to today's capital account. all right so

bernanke's big move that ignited the market rally. not only a big week for big benuckerberg revived his sagging stock price. who delivered the most for investors. zuc, cook or bernanke? >> i think all three. i like what zuck had to say. that was one of the wild card of the group. zuck came out and gave us reason why we should have hope for facebook right now. we know about the heavy valuations. what he defined margin businesses that they were definitely be growing into and other areas. because of that, and the emphasis on mobile that makes me say zuck. >> look at the chart. one week, up more than 16%. he saved face. >> this time around. i think in the longer term and i'm actually i talked about this the other day this isn't a trade. for me this is an investment. in the longer term they can deliver. and because of that, i think this stock can go a lot high zbler who delivered the most for the markets. ? >> i'm very happily married man, was i considered leaving my wife for bernanke, he spread so much joy for everyone in the world. it wasn't just facebook. >> don't sho

ben bernanke or mario dragi? hans, where do you stand on that? decided to start with an easy question. thanks. bernanke, what's the worst people can accuse him of? trying to buy an election for obama? trying to save his job. he's been fighting for the last month, and if you look behind the headlines, you know statements saying he's going to resign, you basically jostling for who is the alpha male in the central bank world in europe. and it's been a tough fight. draghi's done a really good job asserting himself. and really ended up being the linchpin for keeping the euro together. so given whose job i'd want, i think bernanke's got an easier one. >> unchecked, unelected, he can do whatever he wants. >> and they look good on tv too. >> and at the same time you're finding opportunities in european sovereign debt. do you think ultimately draghi will find some success despite having a tougher job than ben bernanke? >> i think he's made huge headway. you know, the bund really was opposing him in pretty harsh terms. but i think that, you know, he's been

years. >> ben bernanke has lots of employment options. motivated in this decision or his previous decisions politically. that is claptrap. it is cold sometimes on the streets. the fact is history will demonstrate clearly that ben bernanke after great courage despite the hypocrite's saying we can't take anymore loose monetary policy, he has a dual mandate as well as stability, he is doing exactly what he has to do and those arguing against him would be among the first to be shrinking the if he had not been taking these actions to push quantitative easing. cheryl: basically inflation like we have never seen before. that will be a big problem going forward. i agree with you i don't think ben bernanke is trying to get a job. he is trying to protect what he has done here and his reputation. dennis: which do you have a worse effect on lack of recovery? the fed or washington policy? gerri: washington. inflation. lou: we have not seen any steps taken by this administration or fiscal policy that makes any sense whatsoever but for this nation ben b

ben bernanke loves this.bsolutely inflation expectations whether you look at ten year break evens, speculation, future and options contracts are at all time highs for things like gold, coffee, oil, anything that you eat, consume or involve in your life and that's the big issue. he has basically perpetuated expectations whether stocks or oil, and that's what slows economic growth. >> would you be buying those mods? >> on pullbacks he's forced to you. understand that there's been three bubbles created by bernanke and greenspan. the internet bubble, real estate bubble and mow the commodity bubble. the commodity bubble whether it's mitt romney or barack obama it's going to be on their watch provided they keep bernanke in power. >> which may take several years to develop but you say buy the bubble before you sell. tricky. >> it's called trading. you have to risk manage it. can you invoke your inner hemingway and say this will happen very slowly and then bang happen all at once. that's what will happen when the com

let me ask you this because chuck schumer, democrat, obviously, put out a statement about ben bernanke today, about those remarks. and he said, it's clear bernanke as he looks at the economic indicators believes it's time to prime the pump, ie, go out with more money. he should not let any political backlash deter him. laura, isn't that political pressure? >> don't agree with senator schumer's statement either. i think that one of the most important features of the u.s. economic system is the independence of the fed. the fed with leadership now that looks at the economic evidence and makes very reasonable decisions. i do not think politicians should be commenting on the fed. >> you know, laura, i agree with that. >> particularly in a political season. >> i agree with your point. i wasn't trying to make the point the fed is being political. what i was trying to say is i think it's probably too late no matter what the fed does to influence what's going to happen with the economy before the election. my major point, though, and maybe this is where laura and i disagree, i just don't think

with ben bernanke. wants someone else. and he said this throughout the primary campaign. the president has been very supportive of bernanke. and i'm just wondering whether it's bernanke's way of saying, i remember what you said, governor, and remember what you've done, mr. president. >> i would just say this to dagen and people who think it's political. have you seen the recent economic statistics and-- >> it's not political ands' responding to-- >> the census data, the middle class incomes are lower than-- >> and less than two months, this couldn't wait. you had to do it right now. >> the economy is getting-- >> he had to do it right now. >> yes. >> neil: adam, he had to do it right now. >> the market going up is not going to help president obama with unemployed workers in ohio and-- it may the help the economy down the road. i agree with charlie. >> neil: oh, my god, it's like the upsidedown world. gary? >> ben bernanke has now become the biggest bundler in the history of time. >> that's a great line.

still ahead an artsy ben bernanke is putting another band-aid on the u.s. economy it's called the q e three and it's about helping the faltering housing market so is this an answer to our economic or just another quick fix. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that the americans call i don't. care what you. are you know what other terrorists. want to defeat terrorism the only liberal democrats. can really sort of. you know support you to distract us from what you and i should care about because they're a profit driven industry that's also sensationalistic garbage because of breaking news i'm having martin and we're going to break that. the federal reserve today announced its plan to help stimulate the economy the plan is to buy forty billion dollars of mortgage bonds a month until further notice this whole idea has been dubbed q e three and the hope is that this will bolster the economy and generate jobs this after fed watchers have been ramping up pressure for the central bank bank to take more aggressive steps to strengthen the

>> susie: ben bernanke made a strong case today that the u.s. economy needs more stimulus and he's ready to give it another dose to boost growth. his message was clear and delivered with conviction. investors around the world had been waiting eagerly to hear the fed chairman's speech in jackson hole wyoming and stocks in the u.s. rallied in reaction. here are the highlights: bernanke said even though the economy has benefited from fed policies over the past few years. the outlook is still quote "far from satisfactory." he described the high unemployment rate a grave concern. he believes the fed should continue using non-traditional policies to spur growth. and bernanke concluded by saying the fed will provide additional policy accommodation as needed. >> tom: that statement was a buy signal for investors. they bought up stocks on the belief that the fed is on the verge of taking more action to stimulate the economy. blue chips rallied triple digits but pulled back by the close. the dow jumped 90 points. the nasdaq added 18 and the s&p rose seven

we don't have tools that are strong enough to solve the unemployment problem. >> that is ben bernankeat he doesn't have the tools and the right tools to solve joblessness. what is he doing there, peter? >> i think he's trying to manage expectations. he is digging up the quantitative easing a gender for big numbers. that is a big program, but he is putting some of the blame for this on congress and the white house. creating uncertainty for both of them for american employers. i want to talk about the possibility of this actually working to bring back the economy and unemployment. it's not me of money. this was actually created by charles payne earlier today. what you see is this benefit of the policies. stocks are higher, the s&p is up dramatic. work is rates are down. when you look at the unemployment rate, it was at 6.7% and now it is 8.1%. people are leaving the labor force. gas prices are much higher. the median home price is now lower than it was when they started. diana, what is the possibility that they can actually be successful here? >> well, they have been trying this before.

too. >> i a since that ben bernanke will not be invited to the forbes' christmas party.nk you, gang. why is a new debate erupting over something that the president said when he was a state senator. the crew said everyone's money on the line you don't want to miss it. and new reports suggest that general motors wants the government to hit the road. this new figh proving@a >pópó >> the government picked him to steer general motors and now he's telling the government to get out. he is saying that the treasury department should sell the last shares they own of general motors as quickly as motor. he backed the rescue but now he said the government is holding the them back. >> the question is how long does the government stay involved. if it was involved it should have been in and out. >> and the market should decide. and they say the government will take a loss on it. the government is running a deficit of trillion. get out of the gm and let the market decide if gm prospers or goes broke again. >> despite the administration claiming they were not interfering in the managing.

ben bernanke, the star of the stock market today. a move to ensure low rates stay low until mid-2015, close to three years from now. all this because he thinks the economy is a mess and can't recover on its own fast enough. let's get reaction from one of the most outspoken businessmen in the country, donald trump. the market sure likes this. what about you? >> i can tell you i also have stock. from a stock standpoint, you're creating basically false numbers. you're devaluing the dollar. as ronald reagan would say, here we go again. that's exactly what's happening. the numbers are false. they're being created. people like me may benefit, but it's not ultimately good for the economy. >> so what if this lowers mortgage rates even further? does that help housing? i mean, you know, do you like the fact that the mortgage rates story could get better? will that help housing? >> mortgage rates are very low, but the banks aren't lending, so it doesn't make any difference. the mortgage rates are already at record low numbers. i'm seeing number

stimulus wasn't the only thing ben bernanke delivered on.e also reaffirmed the need to keep rates exceptionally low to jump start the ailing economy. >> healthy investment returns cannot be sustained in a weak economy. of course, it's difficult to save for retirement or other goals without the income from a job. thus, while low interest rates do impose some costs, americans will ultimately benefit most from the healthy and growing economy that low interest rates help promote. >> veteran money manager bob olstein says the fed has it all wrong and we need to raise rates now. he's here to make his case in that regard. you're among those who feel that for a lot of reasons low rates are going to hurt the economy more than they're going to help. >> absolutely. you need good bank spreads. that's why they're not making money. by the way, i agree with what he did today. treasury rates did jump a little bit in the longer mark. we think, also, there's a crisis in confidence. that's the major problem. we need to get some confidence by business people. a

>> ben bernanke is trying to stimulate the u.s. economy.do is create money and use that money to buy mortgage-backed securities. >> paul: what is it supposed to accomplish? >> the goal is to push down long-term interest rates and by that he thinks that people who have-- investors who would otherwise be buying bonds and capturing a higher interest rate will say, oh, there's no return there, i'm going look for something that gives me a higher return and hoping they will employ that capital in a real economy and that will stimulate growth. >> okay, so, third time the charm here, dan? he tried it twice and might have worked arguably the first time to get us out of the panic, the second time not much obviously. but what about this time? >> what reason is there to believe it would happen this time? >> he said this time it's unlimited. not going to end. every year, 40 billion a month right now, if that doesn't work, we'll buy another 40 and we'll buy another and another until it finally works. >> two things have to happen that haven't happened in

its minutes still that came out yesterday and of course the other thing we've heard a lot about ben bernanke you talked about it quite to quite an extent yesterday in the press conference about the fiscal cliff and what fiscal policy makers aren't doing the heavy lifting the fed is doing but can't do alone so so what could fiscal authorities be doing the central planners sitting not at the federal reserve but sitting over in congress or the white house well or what should they not be doing is really the question to joining me to talk about it is edward harrison founder of credit write downs and nice to have you back on the show advertising. it has been so let's start with the fed because i do want to touch on q.e. because we haven't had a chance to talk about it now you put this into a broader perspective in your thoughts about q.e. in terms of what central banks all over the world are doing to make up for what you say or what fiscal agents are doing first who would you group in to this group of central banks that are that have the printing presses on on overtime to make up for what you say

fed chairman ben bernanke described today's move as "a main street policy." darren gersh reports. >> if you are unemployed or worried about keeping your job, the federal reserve today had a clear message for you-- "we're here to help." federal reserve chairman ben bernanke explained the central bank's decision to take the aggressive and innovative step of launching an open-ended program to buy up mortgage securities. the idea bernanke said is to bring down interest rates on mortgages and other loans even further in a bid to shake the economy out of its rut, and make sure high long-term unemployment does not become a permanent feature of the american economy. >> this is a main street policy, because what we're about here is trying to get jobs going. we're trying to create more employment, we're trying to meet our maximum employment mandate, so that's the objective. >> reporter: bernanke and his colleagues may have been slow to get here, but supporters of a bold approach say the fed did what was needed. >> the fed, normally, it's view is to take away the punchb