Why was it so monumental that the Fed stepped in with the Bear Stearns situation?
Friends of mine at the Fed say there was no other choice. I have no reason to doubt them. A collapse of the Wall Street firm Bear Stearns, as the devastation rippled throughout the financial system, would have savaged the pocketbooks and pensions of every working American. Still, policy moves have unintended consequences. The Fed appears to have placed a government guarantee under the entire U.S. financial system, not just the banks. Sounds great, but some new, all encompassing regulatory structure is therefore needed to protect the public interest at a time of financial deleveraging. That means the profitability of the U.S. financial services industry will decline. The bad news is that the health of a nation’s financial industry is key to future levels of entrepreneurial initiative and overall prosperity. You talk about the “incredible shrinking central banks.” What does the decline in power of the central banks mean for the future of the world economy? People picture central banks as
