Bernanke: More Should’ve Been Jailed for ‘Great Recession’
VAN SUSTEREN: “A 2008 recession costing the nation, that means you, more than seven million jobs, trillions in net worth, and left our economy shaken for years. It still has not fully recovered. So how could the people who did this to the nation got off scot-free. [indecipherable], no indictments. Former chairman of the Federal Reserve and the author of the brand new book “The Courage to Act”, Ben Bernanke goes ‘On the Record. Nice to see you, sir.”
BERNANKE: “Nice to be here.”
VAN SUSTEREN: “Congratulations on your new book.”
BERNANKE: “Thanks. I’m glad it's out now.”
VAN SUSTEREN: “Do I understand this correctly, I know that there’s been some criticism even of you that there weren’t any indictments, but you are the banker, you are not the attorney general, and am I right that you didn't dare to say anything during this time because anything that comes out of the Federal Reserve is going to shake the entire global economy because we all react to it?”
BERNANKE: “Well, I was talking about the Department of Justice's strategy. They he decided to try to penalize institutions and get big fines out of the banks. And I thought at the time that it would have been better off going after the folks who have made the decisions. After all, it's people, not banks that actually make decisions."
VAN SUSTEREN: “I guess I say this because there is criticism that you didn't speak up at the time to go to the Justice Department to say get some indictments and maybe you haven't heard that criticism."
VAN SUSTEREN: “The Feds is not an enforcement agency, and I thought that was out of my lawn to talk to the Department of Justice, and I was worried about doing that."
VAN SUSTEREN: “All right. I guess my point is, I’m with you on this one. I mean, I agree that you shouldn't have spoken up. I'm highly critical of Attorney General Eric Holder and also of any attorney general because in the instance of Goldman Sachs, they had had some sort of accounting gimmickry and which had enormous consequences for the nation, and yet, only one sort of low level person in another institution ever was indicted.”
BERNANKE: “That’s right. And there were traders also who distorted the markets and rigged their markets. There is reason to go after those people and, of course, each person gets a fair shake and fair investigation, but results should what they are."
VAN SUSTEREN: “Was this a fun job being chairman of the Federal Reserve?"
BERNANKE: “Well, it was an interesting job, that's for sure. As an economist, I sure learned a lot. But I didn't really bargain for having the history's greatest financial crisis and a deep recession to deal with, no."
VAN SUSTEREN: “Was it nice in 2008 when you couldn't even sleep? I mean, when we were on the cliff."
BERNANKE: “Absolutely we were on the cliff, and I was in my office on that red sofa trying to stay awake and be on the conference calls. It was a very, very tough time particularly in bout September and October of 2008."
VAN SUSTEREN: “And indeed, it's such a difficult job because you never can look into the future, you don't have a crystal ball I take it at the Federal Reserve to see what every decision is going to do to the economy. I take you don't have one?"
BERNANKE: “No, I don't have one. I never did have one. Lot of uncertainty, you are trying to balance a whole lot of considerations every time."
VAN SUSTEREN: “Sir, thank you for joining us. The book is 'The Courage to Act', a memoir of crisis and aftermath by former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. It is a fascinating read because we get the inside story. We were all on the outside. Thank you, sir.”
