SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Anatomy of a Meltdown

from the New Yorker

Some are born radical. Some are made radical. And some have radicalism thrust upon them. That is the way with Ben Bernanke, as he struggles to rescue the American financial system from collapse.

Early every morning, weekends included, Bernanke arrives at the headquarters of the Federal Reserve, an austere white marble pile on Constitution Avenue in Foggy Bottom. The Fed, which is as hushed inside as a mausoleum, is a place of establishment reserve.

... At Princeton, where Bernanke taught economics for many years, he was known for his retiring manner and his statistics-laden research on the Great Depression. For more than a year after he was appointed ... to chair the Fed, he faithfully upheld the policies of his immediate predecessor, the charismatic free-market conservative Alan Greenspan ... But ... the growing financial crisis has forced Bernanke to intervene on Wall Street in ways never before contemplated by the Fed.