Liar’s Poker at the Federal Reserve--"Can't anybody here play this game?"

That quote’s attributable to Casey Stengel, expressing his frustration over his team's spectacular ineptitude. Spectacular ineptitude is exactly the phrase that defines Ben Bernanke’s chairmanship of the Federal Reserve throughout the Fed’s stumbling, blundering support of special interests relating to the 2007 financial meltdown. When we meekly accept ‘quantitative easing’ as an excuse to throw newly printed money at errant banks, to pay off their fraudulently accrued gambling debts, its well past time to send old Casey out to the mound to kick at the dirt, look toward the bullpen, tug his cap and wave in a new pitcher.

One can imagine the pencil-chewing that went on, while the giveaway-artists tried to invent a term to mask simply bailing out their own interests. “Paulson’s Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) got too much push-back. We need a better name, one the public will accept.” Someone at the table finally came up with ‘quantitative easing’ and the show was on the road. Unde…