The Education of Ben Bernanke

from the NY Times Magazine.

UPDATE: The WSJ's "Real Time Economics" provides time-pressed readers with some CliffsNotes for the rather lengthy article.

It's the Fed' fault...

...says Anna Schwartz. Econ majors are likely to recognize her name as being on the cover of "A Monetary History of the United States," alongside Milton Friedman. Schwartz is still highly revered in monetary policymaking circles, so this condemnation may be more important to the ivory tower economists than readers of this blog might think at first. I doubt it will ultimately impact anyone's (read, "Bernanke & CO.'s") decision about what to do, but it won't go unnoticed either. A quote:

"There never would have been a sub-prime mortgage crisis if the Fed had been alert."

HT: Greg Mankiw

Fed to talk to us more... WSJ

No new talk out of the Fed this week (of course, its only Monday) but WSJ's Greg Ip has this piece on new Fed policy regarding communication with the markets. An interesting excerpt:

"...Mr. Bernanke or Mr. Kohn are likely to address the economic outlook in public at least once between policy meetings as long as the economic outlook remains unsettled. The idea is to help the market identify the Fed's central view without relying solely on comments from lower-ranking members of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group of Fed governors and regional bank presidents that sets the target for short-term interest rates."

If recent history is any indication, however, there isn't any reason to think that more public appearances will do anything except add to the volatility - uncertainty - regarding what the FOMC might do.