Where the Hell is Bernanke?

It seems like Benny Bernanke ducked out while all of this debit limit political infighting was taking place. Where was he though? Was he trimming his beard? Watching more baseball games? Catching up on Break Bad episodes? This is exactly the time when he’s needed.

He’ll be front and center in a week or so though, as FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) will meet Aug. 9 in Washington. The big question is what can big Ben do to get the United States economy back on track. He does have a few options:

• Announce free ice cream for everyone
• Tell everyone to go see the Smurfs movie, it’s great
• Do a third round of bond purchase
• Cut the interest rate it pays banks on excess reserves
• Print more money
• Pledge to hold its assets at a record high and interest rates at record lows for a longer period
• Tell everyone to buy more stuff
• Sacrifice a chicken to the Gods to bring more jobs
• Ask people if he should shave his beard off or not
• Tell people to buy more gold and then selling in six months when it’s peaked
• Say he’s giving up and we are actually going to experience another Great Depression, sorry, and good luck

In all seriousness, I hope Obama and Bernanke and the rest can start to get things moving that will actually create jobs. The payroll tax cuts. The trade agreements. Infrastructure and road building and so on. Stop with the politics.