Ben Bernanke's Nightmare Scenario
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
BE AFRAID Bernanke Haven't you felt all week that Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson know something that you don't, or that they're not telling you? Like, it is basically just them and the White House being like, "PUT UP THE BILLIONS or everything will COLLAPSE." And everyone else is like, "Well let it! Screw Wall Street because they screwed themselves!" So now they are laying it out a little bit more in this morning's testimony down in our nation's glorious capital. "Bernanke laid out a more dismal outlook for the U.S. economy," said the Washington Post. Also no one is buying cars. Fewer people are building houses. Commercial real estate will now falter. Unemployment is high and U.S. exports will fall. Well? So we might enter ... a recession? (Just like Japan!) Man, George Bush's legacy is completely, utterly hosed—and everything the White House is doing is devoted to salvaging some part of it. That is a losing battle.