Bernanke 101

Chairman Bernanke’s decision to use the first of his four lectures at George Washington University to attack the gold standard certainly puts the hay down where us mules can get to it. “Ben Bernanke’s first lesson on economics: Forget about the gold standard,” is how Politico led its story. The Fed chairman used a series of slides to guide his remarks to a bright looking group of students. The “strength of a gold standard is its greatest weakness too,” one slide said. “Because the money supply is determined by the supply of gold, it cannot be adjusted in response to changing economic conditions.” Mr. Bernanke insisted he understands “the impulse” behind the gold standard, “but I think if you look at actual history the gold standard didn’t work well.”