by David Arthur Walters

Created on: February 14, 2009   Last Updated: April 13, 2009

BERNANKE'S DREAM - self-fulfiling prophecies of the top-down crisis.

The current financial and economic crisis is the symptom of a mental or moral disorder that began with immorality at the top of our top-down corporate society. President George W. Bush saw the Wall Street casino reeling with irrational exuberance long before it passed out. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, intoxicated by free market fundamentalism, had not taken the punchbowl away. It was no coincidence that his successor Ben Bernanke took office as the great boom in play money was accelerating, that his favorite subject was the Great Depression, and that he wanted to let the public in on the mystical proceedings of the top-secret policy-setting conventicles at the Fed.

Love does not a secret abhor. All great religions including secular civic religions need mysteries to endure, to keep up confidence in the face of absurdities, the logical contradictions in a text emanating from the singular logos. There must be no debate wherever faith in ultimate authority is needed during times of utter crisis. Thus far the democratic criticism of the Obama administration's transparent plans to treat the money disease is not boosting confidence the contradictions cause the seasick passengers to believe that the pilot house on the bridge to nowhere is manned by fools. If it were not for the fact that Mr. Bernanke had not personally forged the circumstances that made him the fitting person for the circumstances, we might fault his "transparency" and blame him for pushing the panic button by clearly mouthing certain signals of impending disaster, warnings that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson took as his cue to make secondary, knee-jerking motions. Others blame Mr. Bernanke for hiking up the price of liquor somewhat after letting it run freely for awhile, which caused the parties to sober up quite a bit now that the drinks are becoming cheaper again, all along the treasured yield curve, runaway inflation is expected to set in some time in the future..

Mr. Bernanke's academic dream of the Roaring Twenties followed by the Great Depression and his version of the Salvation Plan has almost come true. No doubt he intuited that the expectations had greatly exceeded the possibilities for realization, that a bust was impending, that doom was nigh yet again, that something had to be done to keep the balloons in the air. Time and time again the ancient gods had warned man of the dire consequences of his overconfidence

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