Morning Edition did a great effort to cover up for Ben Bernanke's responsibility for the Great Recession telling listeners that the public doesn't want to engage in the blame game. (This is reminiscent of the great line from Monty Python: "let's not argue about who killed who.") The reporters actively ridiculed Senator Bunning who blamed the Fed for the crisis. Of course, Mr. Bunning is exactly right. Bernanke chose to ignore an $8 trillion housing bubble that was easy for any competent economist to recognize. It was inevitable that the collapse of this huge bubble would lead to a severe downturn. The bubble was driving the economy, creating more than a $1 trillion in annual demand through its impact on residential construction and consumption. There is no easy way to replace this amount of demand, which evaporated when the bubble collapsed. All of this should have been evident to Bernanke years ago. He and his colleagues at the Fed should have taken steps to prick the bubble before it grew to such dangerous levels. The failure of the Fed to act has had disastrous consequences for the country. It would be difficult to imagine how someone could fail more completely in their job than Bernanke did. Yet, NPR thinks it is ridiculous to question whether Bernanke should be reappointed. This is an excellent display of the different standards of accountability in Washington and the world where most people live and work.
--Dean Baker
