The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, fetched up at Columbia University last night to accept a “distinguished leadership in government award” from the university’s president, Lee Bollinger. Forgive us, but the word “distinguished” strikes us as premature and will seem that way to other Americans, too, who are flabbergasted at the cost of gasoline, food, New York City apartments, and European travel.

Don’t just take our word for it — listen to the Sage of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett, who, according to the Wall Street Journal, told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders gathered at their annual meeting this weekend, “We are happy to invest in businesses that earn their money in the euro, or in companies that derive their earnings in Germany, or from the sterling in the [United Kingdom], because I don’t have a feeling that those currencies are going to depreciate in a big way against the dollar.” The Journal said that the legendary investor is poised to buy a British company and will this month “tour five European cities looking for more buying opportunities.”

Or look at Henry Kravis, the brilliant private equity investor who also welcomed Mr. Bernanke to Columbia last night. The Web site of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. announces big recent investments in a Turkish shipping company, an Indian telecommunications concern, and a Chinese cement firm.

Anyone looking for Mr. Bernanke to defend the Fed’s monetary policy or the diminishing value of the dollar on his watch last night at Columbia Business School would have been disappointed. Likewise for anyone looking for an upbeat message about the future of the American economy. Instead he delivered a disquisition on “Mortgage Delinquencies and Foreclosures,” a speech that more appropriately might have been given by the federal secretary of housing and urban development. He didn’t utter the word “dollar.”

We’ve taken the position, as the founders did, that responsibility for the value of the dollar lies with Congress, not with Mr. Bernanke. The only one there who seems to be rising to the challenge is Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, whose new book on the collapse of the dollar is reaching the top of national bestseller lists. It would be an opportunity for any of the three senators running for president were any of them to rise to it.