David Wessel talked about his book In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic (Crown Business; August 4, 2009). In his book the Pulitzer Prize-winning economics editor of the Wall Street Journal details how Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke came to the rescue of the U.S. economy to prevent a second Great Depression. Mr. Wessel claims that Chairman Bernanke’s response effectively made the Federal Reserve the 4th branch of government. Mr. Bernanke was named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. Alice Rivlin was the guest interviewer.
Alice Rivlin, first director of the Congressional Budget Office and current senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, also served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board from 1996 to 1999.