Weekly Wrap: Derivative fight!
Catherine Rampell and Felix Salmon join Kai Ryssdal to bid farewell to Ben Bernanke, analyze Argentina, and argue about calculus
This week’s wrap was one of our most Marketplace-esque yet. The New York Times’ Catherine Rampell and Reuters’ Felix Salmon joined us to talk:
Rampell: “Confidence feeds on confidence, and if you have a lack of confidence elsewhere, and so many markets are interlinked, then that’s problematic.”
Salmon: “Most Americans just deal with other Americans; most American companies deal with other American companies. We’re not a tiny island nation like the one I come from. If something is going on in Argetina or Turkey, honestly it doesn’t matter that much to the United States.”
On the GDP, and on which derivative is better:
“I’m going to be optimistic on the first derivative, and you can be pessimistic on the second derivative, and I’m going to be the person going up, and you’re going to be going up as well, just not realizing it.”
And finally, on how we’ll remember Ben Bernanke next time we’re making timelines about Federal Reserve chairmen:
“I think he will probably be remembered very positively. At least for rescuing the economy from going off the brink, particularly at a time when Congress was not doing a whole lot to help.”
“He didn’t win any popularity contests, but given the utter inaction by Congress, he was the one who got the economy going again.”