Bernanke’s Fed leadership continued Greenspan’s market-discipline orthodoxy rather than repudiating it

Evidence

Benjamin Bernanke was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank Board in 2002, and named chairman of the Fed by George Bush in 2005. Bush was persuaded that this avowed follower of Milton Friedman would make a suitable replacement for the previous chair, Alan Greenspan. Following his nomination as Fed chairman, Bernanke told the press that, if confirmed, his plan was “to maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years.” Although many are convinced they detect a repudiation of his predecessor in his subsequent activities, a case can be made that Bernanke was faithful to his original pledge. Much has been made in the interim that one of Bernanke’s academic specialties in his previous life had been the economic history of the Great Depression of the 1930s; but (tedious nag that I am), yet again, few have bothered to actually read his writings and speeches. As late as July 20, 2006, Bernanke was testifying before Congress thus: “The best way to achieve good oversight of hedge funds is through market discipline … I think that market discipline has shown its capability of keeping hedge funds well disciplined.” The record discloses Bernanke channeling Greenspan with a tonier Ivy League pedigree. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 501

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader thesis of the book about how a market-fundamentalist orthodoxy was sustained through the crisis era. — connects to: Bernanke’s Fed doctrine is the Friedmanite branch of neoliberal monetary catechism. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 521
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how exactly did the technocratic machinery keep Friedmanite continuity invisible as ‘innovation’?

Broader Connections

• Bernanke’s Fed doctrine is the Friedmanite branch of neoliberal monetary catechism. #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 521