“When George W. Bush nominated Ben Bernanke to be Federal Reserve Chairman in late 2005, we wrote that there was ‘at least rough justice’ in the fact that Mr. Bernanke would have to clean up a monetary bubble that he had helped to create. Alas, that was truer than even we feared, and yesterday President Obama rewarded Mr. Bernanke for his efforts by nominating him for a second four-year term.
“One request: This time around, could he make the mess and clean-up a little less bloody?
“A striking fact of the last two years of financial trouble is how accountability has differed in the public and private spheres. On Wall Street and across the country, decades-old firms have failed, fortunes have vanished, and some former captains of finance face jail or fines. In Washington, meanwhile, most regulators and Members of Congress remain on the job, often with enhanced power.”
— The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2009
