Have you been stimulated or destimulated....Bernanke decides!

This article was written by Barbara Cohen of the Tycoon Report

Hail Bernanke: Those in Foreclosure Salute You!

This week, we saw Ben Bernanke "re-anointed" for another four years.

President Barack "Change" Obama, in his heartfelt speech, thanked Bernanke for his "bold action and out-of-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall," for bringing "our economy back from the brink" and for building a "new foundation for growth and prosperity."

Hail Bernanke!

But let's take a good look at Bernanke's report card for just the past year and see whether his actions truly merit another four years at the helm.

1. Acknowledged unemployment -- 9.4%.

This does not take into consideration the millions who are underemployed and would like to be full-time employees, or those who simply cannot find work and have fallen off the unemployment rosters even though they've still searching for a job.

In April, the real unemployment number was roughly 15%, but now exceeds 20%.

2. I came. I saw. I foreclosed.

Here are some startling housing facts from the FDIC Web page:

One out of every 200 homes will be foreclosed upon.

Every three months, 250,000 new families enter foreclosure.

One child in every classroom is at risk of losing his or her home.

A slower real estate market translates into lower home values. Homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages find that, as their mortgage rate adjusts higher, their home value is lower and therefore refinancing is no longer an option.

Six out of 10 homeowners wished they had understood the terms of their mortgage better.

A new category of home sales arose called "short sales," where the sale price of the home is far less than the mortgage needed to be created.

3. The national median existing-home price -- $178,400 in July 2009.

The value of the average home is down 15.1 percent from July 2008. Total housing inventory at the end of July rose 7.3 percent to 4.09 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 9.4-month supply at the current sales pace.

4. National debt cap will need to rise.

Congress will raise the legal limit later this year, according to Treasury officials. The cap the government can borrow from public or foreign creditors is limited by law to $12.1 trillion.

Treasury officials are already expecting to borrow an additional $892 billion through the end of 2009, driving the overall debt past the cap sometime in the fourth quarter.

As of Aug. 29, 2009, at 3 p.m. GMT, the outstanding debt now stands at $11,732,133,791,514.90.

5. $700 billion in 'TARP' money awarded to banks. Carpe Diem or, in this case, Carpe TARP!

Officials overseeing the bailout charged the Treasury with dereliction of duty for failure to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent. Many of the 364 banks that received TARP funds co-mingled the money with existing funds and had no proper accountability

Now, 18 banks who received funds didn't make dividend payments due on preferred shares from the Capital Purchase Program.


Number of bank failures so far this year -- 84. This includes another three on Friday, Aug. 29 in Maryland, Minnesota and California.

Disposable personal spending decreased by $4.6 billion in July alone.

Real Gross Domestic Product, the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States, decreased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter. It was forecast to rise 0.2%.

Even those willing to drink Obama's Kool-Aid can't give Bernanke anything but low grades. These actions can hardly be called "bold action and out-of-the-box thinking," let alone build a "new foundation for growth and prosperity