It's Ben or we all go bust.
It just hit me today -- watching Ben Bernanke getting grilled on Capitol Hill today -- say what you will, he's the last adult standing anywhere in the Capitol today.
That doesn't mean I'm a fan of his policies or his bond-buying binge that I fear will ultimately leave us all with a serious economic hangover.
My point is, say what you will of him, there's no one who comes close to him for at least trying to do something constructive and trying to do something even more remarkable: work.
Ben Bernanke works his hiney off -- some say, the hardest working Federal Reserve chairman this nation has ever had. I don't know. This much I do: If not for Ben, we'd be in a lot bigger mess because monetary policy has been what's carried this fragile recovery, certainly not fiscal policy.
The president's scaring the nation. Congress appears to be turning off the nation. And there's old Ben just trying to save the nation. A rock in a stormy sea, buffeted by second-guessing congressmen who'd sooner blast him than thank him for at least trying to do their job.
Leaving aside they're a lot better at spreading the sheet than reading a spreadsheet, they feel comfortable ripping a guy who patiently listens to their moronic diatribes.
I still don't know how all this artificially holding down interest rates by buying every Treasury note and bond and mortgage security the Fed can get its hands on will work out. I do know that at least the Fed's been doing work.
Like him or not, Ben is the reason investors are taking their capital here. They prefer it here not because we're giants, more like the tallest pygmies in the room. But it is something and it's something because of Ben.
The guy who barely talks. Not this guy, the guy who barely takes a breath.
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