Ben Bernanke, politician? So much for "Fed Independence"

[bobbyw24]

The Federal Reserve was already making a high-stakes economic bet with QE2. Now it's also a political bet, and that doesn't bode well for Bernanke or the Fed.

What happened to the independent central bank?

I started to write an ironic, playful column comparing the Federal Reserve's decline to that of the Yankees' shortstop, Derek Jeter. Both are still pretty good compared to what else is out there, but they're sure not what they used to be.

But the more I thought about the problems the Fed is having these days, the more I realized that what's going on isn't funny. It's creepy.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/16/ben-bernanke-politician/?section=money_topstories

[Bern]

I'll see your question about independence and raise you with solid evidence leaving no doubt:
In our most recent Broyhill Letter, we explained that, “Evidence from the Nixon tapes clearly reveals that Nixon pressured then Fed Chairman Arthur Burns to engage in expansionary monetary policies prior to the 1972 election. Blaming a modest rise in the unemployment rate as one of the reasons he lost the 1960 election, he demanded an expansionary monetary policy in the run-up to the 1972 election.”

After reading through Burton Abrams piece in the Journal of Economic Perspectives once more, we figured the work was worth sharing in its entirety. Please click here (http://cba.unomaha.edu/faculty/mwohar/WEB/links/Donestic_Money_papers/Abrams_jep-v20n42006.pdf) to download a copy of the document and destroy any notions you might have had about the Fed’s “Independence.”
...

http://www.businessinsider.com/any-theory-of-political-independence-of-the-fed-was-destroyed-by-the-nixon-tapes-2010-11