There is nothing new under the sun.
The great navigator Captain James Cook found, as did Bernanke, that the process of discovery can be violent, and he did so the hard way.
It was a different crowd, a different place and a different time - Feb/14/1779. The crowd, the natives of the Hawaiian island of Hawaii. Cook was mistaken to be an incarnation of Lono, the god of peace and productivity. Even the masts of his ships Resolution and Discovery resembled the design on the tapa that was the icon of Lono. So the islanders were taken in.
But soon things went very wrong. There were scuffles between crew and native. Some natives were killed. This didn’t seem to the crowd like the work of Lono. Next, one of Cook’s skiffs disappeared. The Discovery shelled a suspect village. Then Cook appeared on shore. Rocks were chucked, next spears and finally guns fired. Blood was drawn. Suddenly the crowd realized that deliverance was not part of the deal, that Cook was a mere mortal.
He’d seen his last sunrise.
So it is with Bernanke. The market crowd everywhere and always demands a god. They’re lost without one. When that god does not perform, they feel betrayed, made out to be fools. These gods are of course completely the stuff of invention. But Cook let it go, enjoying being the subject of idiolatry. So did Burns, so did especially Greenspan, and so has Bernanke.
Thus, these Chairmen claimed ownership to powers that were not in their possession, generally by simply going along. Until, that is, it was too late.
Robert Craven
The great navigator Captain James Cook found, as did Bernanke, that the process of discovery can be violent, and he did so the hard way.
It was a different crowd, a different place and a different time - Feb/14/1779. The crowd, the natives of the Hawaiian island of Hawaii. Cook was mistaken to be an incarnation of Lono, the god of peace and productivity. Even the masts of his ships Resolution and Discovery resembled the design on the tapa that was the icon of Lono. So the islanders were taken in.
But soon things went very wrong. There were scuffles between crew and native. Some natives were killed. This didn’t seem to the crowd like the work of Lono. Next, one of Cook’s skiffs disappeared. The Discovery shelled a suspect village. Then Cook appeared on shore. Rocks were chucked, next spears and finally guns fired. Blood was drawn. Suddenly the crowd realized that deliverance was not part of the deal, that Cook was a mere mortal.
He’d seen his last sunrise.
So it is with Bernanke. The market crowd everywhere and always demands a god. They’re lost without one. When that god does not perform, they feel betrayed, made out to be fools. These gods are of course completely the stuff of invention. But Cook let it go, enjoying being the subject of idiolatry. So did Burns, so did especially Greenspan, and so has Bernanke.
Thus, these Chairmen claimed ownership to powers that were not in their possession, generally by simply going along. Until, that is, it was too late.
Robert Craven
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