Fed Chief Bernanke: Economic Hero

We’ll forgo the mental image of the Fed chairman in a cape and tights, but Alan Beattie, international economy editor at the Financial Times, argues Ben Bernanke is the only hero to come out of the global financial crisis.

In his new book, “Who’s in Charge Here? How Governments Are Failing the World Economy,” Beattie writes that of all the central bankers in the world, only one (Bernanke) did the right thing by focusing on the crisis as one of markets and confidence, not debt. He calls austerity measures instituted recently by certain eurozone countries “crazy,” especially given that they’re being undertaken in the midst of a recession.

“Whether it’s Europe’s top officials blithely stumbling from one bailout to the next, or our own voluntarily flirting with default last summer, there’s been a deficit of clear thinking among policymakers,” The Atlantic writes in a review of the book. “Add to that a lack of will among international institutions like the G20, and the results have been tragicomic.”

And Beattie doesn’t hold back when discussing politicians in the United States.