Your overview of the recent panic in financial markets covers all the bases, as it were (“It’s Rough Out There,” January 26, 2008). That is, all the bases but one: Ben Bernanke. To his credit, he is new to the job. Still, lowering the prime rate of interest by as much as three-quarters of a percentage point at an unscheduled meeting of the Federal Reserve Board right in the middle of a stockmarket panic is, well, adolescent. Worse, pubescent. The chairman of the Fed and the guardian of the American economy has blundered in a way that suggests nothing less than incompetence. When it comes to the prime rate of interest, it is clear he does not know his Keynes. Returning to your overview, when dealing with the danger of world recession, now we must consider one additional global risk: Ben Bernanke himself.

Addendum (October 10, 2022)

As it turns out, Ben Bernanke has just won a Nobel prize in economics. Keynes must be turning in his grave. After so many years in the wake of the last recession, the prize suggests that another slashing of the prime rate of interest is soon in coming. To be sure, the former chief of the Federal Reserve Board is a global risk once again. For who is to argue against the august Nobel committee at this day and age?