Did We Miss Ben Bernanke Last Week?
Being a gentleman, Ben Bernanke probably isn’t enjoying the plight of his European colleagues. Mr. Bernanke, hoping for the best but fearing the worst, went “all in” in responding to the Panic of 2008. He used emergency powers given to the Fed by Congress in the 1930s for exigent circumstances. The circumstances were exigent.
Chairman Bernanke’s reward will likely include the removal of those emergency powers from the Fed’s tool kit and GAO second-guessing of monetary policy decisions, not to mention almost being denied a second term as Chairman. If only he had been more deliberative and taken his time like those much-admired cooler European heads in charge of the Euro.
This week we’ve seen the value of Europe’s more “measured” approach. At least we waited until we arranged to save our banks before starting to trash them. The Europeans were more forthright in making their distaste and reluctance to help Greece public early on. Thanks a lot.
The European authorities managed to turn aid to a small country into a major world-wide crisis with their public reluctance and indecision. If they didn’t want to “bail Greece out” they should have kicked them out of the Euro zone to ease their pain and rid themselves of a nuisance.
Just kicking Greece out of the EU would have been the logical course, and it would have save a lot of heart ache by various governments, the U.S. included. But then, what about the Greek bond holders. I am convinced that the rescue of Greece is really about the rescue of the bond holders, not saving the Greek government.