Of course, he didn't anticipate the last Bear Stearns either. It might be worth pointing this out to readers. This isn't a question of being rude, it's just a question of putting Mr. Bernanke's opinions in context. The simple fact is that Bernanke has been continually surprised by every aspect of this crisis. When he was first nominated to be Fed chairman in 2005 he assured the public that there was no housing bubble and he continued to make such assurances in his first year as Fed chair. When problems in the subprime mortgage market began to shake world financial markets early last year, Bernanke expressed confidence that these problems would be contained in the subprime sector. As credit problems continued to build through the fall, he told Congress that he didn't expect these problems to lead to a recession. This article does actually later tell readers that the Bear Stearns meltdown did surprise Bernanke: "Mr. Bernanke said he and his colleagues at the Fed did not know until March 13 that Bear Stearns faced bankruptcy and that they quickly realized a failure to act would create a global crisis." However, the article never suggests that his failure to anticipate Bear Stearns' difficulties is relevant in assessing Bernanke's statements about the likelihood of another meltdown elsewhere. There is a general tendency among reporters to treat people in positions of power as being extraordinarily insightful. Sometimes this is not true. It is certainly appropriate to provide information of experts' track records when presenting their views to readers.
--Dean Baker