Ready, Fire, Aim Pt. V

Ben Bernanke would like you to know that he hears your concerns and… that you can all go pound sand anyway.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned yesterday that the highly unpopular job of using taxpayer money to bail out financial institutions in the United States and other countries was far from over.

“More capital injections and guarantees may become necessary to ensure stability and the normalization of credit markets,” Bernanke said during a speech at the London School of Economics.

Though the Fed chairman acknowledged that people in many countries were “understandably concerned” about pumping government money into the financial industry while often turning a cold shoulder to other sectors, he defended the effort as unpleasant but necessary.

And about that original idea of buying-up bad mortgages? Well, perhaps, Obama can take that up again with the second $350 billion of the $700 billion financial bailout kitty.

Bernanke suggested that Obama might want to revive the original idea of the rescue plan to buy unsellable mortgage-backed securities and other illiquid assets. That idea was originally the centerpiece of the program as it was first promoted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Paulson abandoned the idea before getting started, arguing that it would be faster and more efficient to inject capital directly into the biggest banks and investment firms.

You’ll be pleased to know what a magnificent bi-partisan effort this has all been as any effective differences between D.C. Republicans and Democrats, in fiscal matters at least, has been papered over in an avalanche of green backs spewing forth from the Treasury.