If your local fireman lit your house on fire and then started to put that fire out like he would if it were a normal fire would you hire a new fireman mid-fire if you could?

Say what?

Let me phrase it another way.  If your taxi driver fell asleep at the wheel and woke up when you shouted at him just in time to swerve from oncoming traffic would you stay in the taxi or jump out to catch another one?

A little more clear?

Alright one more.  If your Federal Reserve Board Chairman misread economic conditions to the point where he led our country into its worst economic recession since the 1930s would you re-appoint him for another term just because he claims to have kept that recession from becoming a depression? 

In essence that was the question(s) presented to the Senate earlier today as Ben Bernanke sought re-appointment for another term as your Federal Reserve Board Chairman.  By a 70-30 vote this chamber of Congress in all its wisdom decided to confirm him for another four years and in my opinion that was just plain wrong.

Now back to that fire.  After taking over for his predecessor Alan Greenspan in 2005, Bernanke heavily advocated the easy money low interest rate policies at the Fed that directly resulted in the mortgage and housing bubbles and their implosions in 2008.  As late as the spring of 2007 Bernanke was asked about subprime mortgage concerns and testified that “this issue would likely be contained” and that he saw only “limited impact on the broader housing market.’  Then about three months later all hell started to broke loose.

Call me old school but I honestly don’t believe anyone really deserves a second go round at wrecking our economy.

The not so compelling argument to grant Bernanke another term was that it all would have been a lot worse had he not been there.  Not sure I’m buying that one, don’t think it could have been a whole lot worse under any circumstances.

Bernanke has his fans, our President among them, who say he’s done a brilliant job in rescuing us from the brink of depression and disaster.  In my opinion that remains to be seen.  He’s kept interest rates at basically zero perhaps facilitating the same credit problems he induced a few years ago and along side his cohort Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has showered billions upon billions upon the investment banks which as we all know has yet to be cycled back into anything other than they’re own pockets.  

He also appears to have been a key behind the scenes voice without reason in demanding taxpayers bailout AIG at almost $200 billion and in the process award Goldman Sachs 100 cents on the dollar for their counter party risk, something Goldman could never in a million years have received under any other scenario.  And as reports filtered in recent days that Bernanke's own board members may have disagreed with him regarding that absurdity, those documents and emails have been suddenly put under lock and key.  And of course in the aftermath of all this unemployment has soared.  

Moreover, the long term implications of what Bernanke has done since the financial meltdowns of ’08 are still suspect.  At best he’s merely bought time until the next round of disasters while doing nothing to prevent them.  I would have taken my chances on a new fireman.