Let this much be said for Chairman Bernanke: He doesn't think his job is to
sit on the sidelines like some mysterious guru and occasionally issue opaque
communiques in some mystic tongue (Greenspanian) as the economy flits
between euphoria and melancholia . . . Instead, the man consults widely (not
just with everybody who's anybody in the Fed but with the cognoscenti on
Wall Street and in academia) and then acts. Even
when he does nothing, Ben Bernanke seems to do it actively.
This new chairman's more transparent approach to the economy may stem from
all those years he's spent on his academic specialty - the country's
financial system and how it's interacted with the economy in general,
especially during the Great Depression. Back then, the two didn't interact
much at all except to collapse in tandem . . . So when a crisis strikes, the
Fed's new chairman can be counted on to do something about it. Whether it's
the right thing, results will tell. But as a general policy, when
everything's coming apart, it's best to do something even if it's wrong. To
do nothing is only to drift mindlessly downstream . . . toward the cataract.
Speaking of disaster, scriptwriters and producers in Hollywood have broken
off their contract talks. A strike is under way, a dire shortage of repartee
impends, a dialogue deficit looms, a verbal crisis threatens . . . Oh where,
oh where, will we snappy talkers get our next one-liners, our instant
cliches, our canned witticisms, our celluloid references, our handy-dandy
substitute for any actual thought? . . . Are we going to have to go back to
old film clips and start sounding like Bogie and Bacall again? . . . Yo!
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Then we have those conscientious objectors at the State Department who are
balking, noisily, at being sent to Iraq. Hey, you could get killed over
there! Which is a possibility our troops face every day. But the
striped-pants brigade, or at least its more raucous elements, seem to think
they deserve a pass . . . Do you think these characters have ever read the
oath they took? Or noticed they were applying for the foreign
service? . . . Did they think they were signing up only for
posh posts in London and Madrid? Come to think, those locales haven't proved
immune to terror attacks, either.
True conscientious objectors - pacifists on grounds of moral principle - are
allowed an exemption from combat, and should be. But they're not allowed to
pick and choose which of their country's wars they will participate in.
Forget wars of choice; we now have foreign policies of choice . . . What
ever happened to an honorable course like just resigning? But the new breed
of diplomat and dissenter (not necessarily in that order) wants to protest
without risking pay and perks.
Tune in again next week. Till then, this is your devoted correspondent
signing off for Jergen's with lotions of love.