What the Great Depression Taught the Fed

No event in economic history has been more closely studied than America’s Great Depression. The last chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve was even an acknowledged expert on the subject. Yet Ben Bernanke was unable to foresee, let alone forestall, the financial calamity which struck in 2008. In fact, his flawed narrative of the Great Depression informed the policies which produced the global financial crisis. For monetary policymakers, the one thing more dangerous than ignoring the lessons of history is trying to implement them.