The always-quotable SC Sen. Jim DeMint grills Ben Bernanke before the Senate Banking Committee today.
From the WSJ's live-blog:
[DeMint] says Congress created "the most powerful institution in the whole world" in the Fed, overseeing the strength of the economy and the dollar.
He runs through a checklist of what Bernanke identified as the Fed's roles four years ago. The Fed chief gives very careful answers -- some successes, some shortcomings. DeMint gripes that the Fed has "claimed credit for saving the system" and blamed capitalism. He also says Congress deserves some blame on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
And now DeMint runs through what must be the most fun for lawmakers: running through Bernanke's prior quotes (from 2007) about the subprime housing troubles being contained and (from 2008) not expecting problems from the largest banks. (File these in the giant "oops" file for economic forecasters.)
He asks Bernanke to consider an audit. Bernanke says (again) that Congress should have access to financial information while remaining independent in monetary policy.
