Ben Bernanke assesses the Fed

Bernanke also offers some self-criticisms, including an acknowledgement that he failed to recognise how slowly the economy was emerging from recession after the emergency

The world has confronted two acute crises in the past 15 years. In 2007, a housing bubble in the United States brought on the worst financial panic since the Great Depression. In 2019, a novel coronavirus in China set off the deadliest pandemic in a century.

During the first of these crises, Ben S Bernanke was the primary policymaker overseeing the United States government’s emergency response. Shortly before the panic began, President George W Bush appointed Bernanke to be the chair of the Federal Reserve, a job he would hold for the next eight years, through the end of Bush’s presidency