Bernanke his a great job by dropping interest rates quickly and providing liquidity. Now, cut taxes across the board, eliminate capital gains, reduce the federal deficit and watch our economy grow!

1. Other countries where Ben Bernanke is _not_ nevertheless managed to weather the financial crisis. So Bernanke is not essential.

2. Contrary to the lies of omission of David Wessel, the US economy did very well in the 1950s and 1960s (and even the 70s), the economy did pretty well with lots of regulation (including Glass-Steagal) and much higher taxes. The great financial disasters of the past 50 years -- the S&L crisis and our current banking crisis -- are directly related to the conservative-driven blitzkrieg of deregulation.

1. Other countries where Ben Bernanke is _not_ nevertheless managed to weather the financial crisis. So Bernanke is not essential.

2. Contrary to the lies of omission of David Wessel, the US economy did very well in the 1950s and 1960s (and even the 70s), the economy did pretty well with lots of regulation (including Glass-Steagal) and much higher taxes. The great financial disasters of the past 50 years -- the S&L crisis and our current banking crisis -- are directly related to the conservative-driven blitzkrieg of deregulation.

basic question -- the tax credit --

-- can that be applied to part time hires?

semi employees, ie full time but no health care, 401k or vacation time?

Why not put AIG into bankruptcy? Why not???

This tax credit is good for the big companies because they seem to have something for a new worker to do and it wouldn't be such a waste. Small companies, however, only higher somebody when they need it. Hence, this is a demand oriented hire. The small company (70% of the business out there) will higher when they need the extra person, because, even with the credit, they are still netting an expense.

Brian,

Until companies are willing to pay a living wage there aren't going to be a huge influx of jobs created. A living wage is too expensive for the profit lines. And having worked in the Human Resources / budgeting side of things, any money saved from cutting positions and any sales increase goes to the bottom line!

How much of it is just due to the Fed's printing money?