German Chancellor Criticizes Central Banks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly criticized the largest central banks for their excessive intervention in the financial industry:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare public rebuke of central banks, suggested the European Central Bank and its counterparts in the U.S. and Britain have gone too far in fighting the financial crisis and may be laying the groundwork for another financial blowup.
"I view with great skepticism the powers of the Fed, for example, and also how, within Europe, the Bank of England has carved out its own small line," Ms. Merkel said in a speech in Berlin. "We must return together to an independent central-bank policy and to a policy of reason, otherwise we will be in exactly the same situation in 10 years' time."

I agree wholeheartedly. Ben Bernanke was a poor choice for Federal Reserve chairman. When I listen to him testify about monetary policy and the economy I can tell that his brain is still mired in the outdated Keynesian macroeconomics that were in fashion when he got his degree at MIT.

Nor did Greenspan do well during the last few years of his tenure at the Federal Reserve. He lowered the Fed Funds target rate to 1% in 2001 and kept it there for three years, which helped cause the mortgage problem. He was Fed chairman for nearly twenty years and that is too long for anyone to be in such an important position.