Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can’t seem to catch a break.  Wherever he turns someone is there to knock his job performance.  Senators, Presidential candidates, lowly editorial writers…they’ve all lined up and cast their stones.

But why?  Hasn’t Bernanke done everything – and more – that’s been asked of him?  Hasn’t he done precisely what he’s employed to do?

To clarify, if you didn’t know, the Federal Reserve Chairman’s primary job is to give the world exactly what it wants…an abundance of cheap money.  By all measurements, Bernanke’s done a superb job.  Programs like CPFF, MMIFF, TAF, QE, and QE2 are clearly the work of a master money creator.  Alan Greenspan could’ve never conceived of them…and even if he could’ve, he wouldn’t have had the guts to execute them.

But the world is full of critics and ingrates.  Rather than saying thank you to Bernanke, they want to kick him to the curb.  On Tuesday, for instance, Bernanke had to defend himself against a Bloomberg News article that claimed the Fed secretly loaned or guaranteed over $7.7 trillion to bailout banks during the 2008 financial crisis.

Bernanke said in a letter to Congress that the article, “contain[ed] a variety of errors and mistakes” and that the bailout “was a necessary response to ensure that the crucial mistake made during the Great Depression — failing to prevent a collapse of the financial system — was not repeated.” Continue reading →