Make no mistake, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke believes the Federal Reserve stands a fighting chance of re-inflating many segments of the economy and most categories of paper asset prices. Shrewdly, he is less confident that the Fed’s operations will result in a satisfactory recovery of America’s lost jobs. Fed Chair Bernanke can speak of the ongoing financial crisis as the worst since the Great Depression because his rescue of the banking industry will leave many Americans in the lurch.
Mass media may have been the weakest link in the American political system until the financial crisis of 2008. Personal observations support this conclusion as well as assessments of discerning scholars like Doris A. Graber (see “Mass Media & American Politics,” 7th edition, 2006). However, the emerging media situation is more complex, with growing evidence that heroic visionaries are writing to greater effect than forked tongue villains or hopelessly compromised media celebrities.