Want to come out looking good? Shove the lady over the cliff and before she disappears into the abyss grab her hand and keep her dangling.
That´s what Bernanke is praised for:
Alan Blinder who was a governor and vice chairman of the Fed (1994-96) and like Bernanke is a Princeton University professor writes that while between mid 2007 and mid 2008 Fed actions fell short, following the Lehman blow-up “the Fed deserves extremely high marks for its work since then. It has hit the bull’s-eye regularly under very trying circumstances”.
And Mario Draghi in a fit of modesty says:
DAVOS, Switzerland—European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told the World Economic Forum Friday that the ECB’s actions in December had averted financial disaster and cited evidence of improvement in euro-zone markets in recent weeks.
Except for not averting a deep, deep recession, the central banks have done okay. Sure, the recovery is slow. But what is hurry?