Ben Bernanke is on yet another self-serving mission to save his job. Please consider The right reform for the Fed, an op-ed by Ben Bernanke in the Washington Post.

Here is Bernanke's entire article (in italics) with my comments interspersed in plain type. Most of my comments are made straight to Ben Bernanke, but they apply in general to all central bankers.

Vahan Janjigian (Forbes) submits:

As promised, I am reporting on Monday’s speakers on the 16th Forbes Cruise for Investors. We spent the day at sea on our way to St. Croix and listened to three excellent presentations.

Government policy

After toiling to cobble together an industry solution to prevent a Lehman failure, the government, in the person of Hank Paulson, flanked by Geithner and Bernanke, determined that Lehman would file for bankruptcy. Paulson was very clear that he could not stomach another bailout, on the heels of Freddie (FRE), Fannie (FNM) and Bear. He was very specific that Wall Street would have to learn a "moral hazard" lesson.

From a practical standpoint, Paulson's reasons for pushing Lehman to file are irrelevant. Outside the bubble of Manhattan, the American public was also weary. A clear majority would not support a bailout. They would regard such action -- not without reason -- as a use of taxpayer money to bailout a bunch of greedy investment bankers who had brought this on themselves. Moreover, there was little support to be found in Washington for further government backing of Wall Street.

(CT) Avoid Regional Domestic Banks – Zacks Industry Rank Analysis

Decades from now, the summer of 2008 will likely be remembered to mark the turning point where legislative blundering took an otherwise serious financial crisis and molested it into an epic financial collapse.