From Fortune, May 16:
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank’s decision to delay its response to the highest inflation rates in four decades “was a mistake.”
Bernanke, who served two terms as chair of the Federal Reserve during the Bush and Obama administrations, helped guide the country through the 2008 financial crisis—another time in which the central bank played an outsized role in trying to help the economy recover.
But speaking to CNBC on Monday, Bernanke said that while he understands the reasoning behind the Fed’s delayed response, the Jay Powell-led Fed should have acted sooner to help bring down inflation rates that rose as high as 8.5% year-over-year in April.
“Why did they delay their response? I think in retrospect, yes, it was a mistake,” Bernanke told CNBC on Monday. “And I think they agree it was a mistake.”
Bernanke said the Fed avoided taking more immediate action out of fears that it would “shock the market.”....
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