The Rhetoric of the Financial Crisis: Examining 2007-2009 Federal Open Market Committee Statements

Introduction 3
Historical Context 6
Corpus 14
Analysis 18
Theory: Fairclough and Benoit 19
Pre 2007: Big Shoes to Fil123
March 2006 - August 2007: Adherence to Genre and a Focus on Inflation 25
August 2007: Clear Words for Big Problems 30
September 2007 - December 2007: Bemanke Finds His Voice 33
January 2008 - October 2008: Towards a Crisis Rhetoric 35
December 2008: Justifying Zero Percent Rates 37
January - December 2009: A Reconsideration of Genre and Rhetorical Goals 41
Justifying Aggressive Interventions 46
Conclusion: Bemanke's Rhetoric, Vindicated 50
Discussion 52
Bibliography 55
Glossary 59