One of the fundamental truths that define my life is that Little Ben Bernanke, as Chairman of the Fed, failed to do his job in September 2008 when he failed to bail out Lehman Brothers according to the doctrine of Walter Bagehot in Lombard Street because, he said, he did not have the authority.
Ben, oh Ben, I say. Never mind whether you had the authority. A true knight of the Table Round is willing to sacrifice himself in order to nip a credit crisis in the bud.
I’ve mentioned the failings of Little Ben here and especially in “Oppressions of Liberal Cultural/Political Hegemony. Pt. 3” about the failures of the liberal ruling class with respect to housing finance.
But now, The New York Times tells us, Ben Bernanke has won the Nobel Prize for Economics. And for what?
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Ben S. Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chair, and two other academics who have helped to reshape how the world understands the relationship between banks and financial crises.
WAAT? The guy that whiffed the 2008 credit crisis? He gets a Nobel Prize?
Oh, these Nobelistas are real heroes, let me tell you.
Their research has delved into different aspects of how banks become vulnerable to upheaval, how bank failures worsen and extend financial disasters, and how the system might be made safer in light of those risks.
OK, fine. But then with your knowledge, Little Ben, that “bank failures worsen and extend financial disasters,” and your faith in your research, why didn’t you bail out Lehman Brothers in 2008?
Back in the day, I thought that you were a deep state lightweight, Little Ben, put on the Fed as a lackey of the ruling class. Turns out you are supposed to be the world’s foremost expert on bank failures.
So how come, Little Ben? How come you didn’t bail out Lehman Brothers, “because science?” You know that all the regime media would have backed you up. But no, Little Ben, You whiffed it. You whined that you didn’t have the authority to bail out Lehman Brothers. Even you the science told you to. Even though your own research told you to. And so we got the Crash of 2008 and we got the Great Recession and it took about 5 years for the economy to recover.
Oh Ben.
But hey! Now you got a Nobel Prize. Congratulations, old chap.
Next Week: Anthony Fauci gets a Nobel Prize. Because pandemic science.