“So”

Dolors & Sense 

by Sanford Rose

KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—11/28/10—Who says that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke lacks the power to cure the recession?

The proposition is dubious, given that the gentleman has already given evidence of extraordinary, even non-pareil, linguistic puissance.

The word “so” had, one used to think, many but not universal applications. It was generally employed to mean “in the matter indicated” or “with the result that.”

But Chairman Bernanke uses it catholically. He begins his answer to every Congressman’s or reporter’s question with, “So.”

And his example is being emulated by everyone. There isn’t a single economist (and they are everyone, are they not?) who does not preface his/her response to Congressional inquiries in the same fashion.

Now it is clear that the chairman and his imitators are using the word as a sort of throat clearing device or in a manner similar to the French phrase “revenons a nos moutons.” They are saying, in effect: “Yes, you have expressed yourself. Now let’s get back to the point.”

Still, this is a rather novel use of the word, and the speed and extent of its adoption testify to the chairman’s awesome influence.

Can someone with such influence fail to cure our economic ills? Especially since he represents an organization that, under Section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act, is able to do with the nation’s credit practically whatever it wishes, “under unusual and exigent” circumstances?

And who doubts that the circumstances are exigent? Between 10 and 14 million people stand to lose their homes over the next few years because the supply of homes far exceeds the increasingly sluggish demand, implacably driving these people into deeper pits of negative equity.

If the supply of homes cannot be constrained by restrictions on foreclosure and “strategic” default, then the demand for them must be increased by new credit facilities that offer subsidized loans to an ever-growing pool of investors willing to buy these properties and take them off the market by renting them out at increasingly attractive prices.

Utilizing Section 13, Mr. Bernanke can create such a credit facility, buttressing the sagging housing market in much the same manner as he saved the commercial-paper market a few years ago.

“So,” (traditional usage) what is the financially and etymologically innovative and energetic chairman waiting for?