The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week: July 20

2. Schumer Shirks Work

Talk about passing the buck Chuck!

Senator Charles Schumer gave Ben Bernanke his marching orders Tuesday, telling the Fed Chairman to "get to work" because an immobilized Congress can't save the country from falling off the so-called fiscal cliff.

The fiscal cliff, as Bernanke defined in his opening marks to the assembled Senators, is the precipice at which the U.S. economy would find itself if the full range of tax increases and spending cuts currently called for were allowed to take effect.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a shallow recession would occur early next year and about 1.25 million fewer jobs would be created in 2013 should the government not resolve the issue and strike a budget deal by year end.

"Given the political realities of this year's election, I believe the Fed is the only game in town," pronounced Schumer. "I would urge you, now more than ever, to take whatever actions are warranted."

Sorry Charlie, but that's bull! You can't put the fate of the world's largest economy on one guy, even if he is the only guy in the world with an unlimited balance sheet. It's not Ben's fault that you and your buddies in Congress can't get it together.

And let's face it, there's not much more the Fed Chairman can singlehandedly do to keep the economy afloat. He's quantitatively eased. He's twisted. He's publicly announced plans to keep the fed funds rate at near zero until 2014. He's done everything short of open up an online brokerage account and buy stocks, which he very well may do if things don't improve in a hurry.

Toughest of all, he's been doing it with Congressman Ron Paul on his ass and Texas Governor Rick Perry threatening to "treat him pretty ugly" should he step foot in his state. Talk about a thankless task.

Sincerely Senator, don't you think Ben's already done more than his share of heavy lifting? Maybe it's time for you to take your own advice and pick up some of the load too.

Now get to work Senator.

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