Paul Krugman on Bernanke

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/the-humbling-of-the-fed-wonkish/

This is an article today from Paul Krugman. He lavishes more praise on Bernanke than is deserved, but his last paragraph is spot on.

So Ben Bernanke came into his current position believing that central banks have the power,
all on their own, to fight Japan-type problems. It seems that he was wrong.

I've been ranting about this for months. Bernanke thought he knew exactly what the Fed did wrong in the Great Depression. What he failed to realize was that the Fed doesn't have the power at all to stop it. He spent his whole adult life preparing himself for a fight he could never win.