Typically, the op-ed pages are the staging ground from where Ben Bernanke's critics launch their fireballs at the Federal Reserve. This time, it is Mr. Bernanke who is on the offensive.
The morning after the Fed's policy committee voted to create $600-billion through June to buy Treasuries, readers of the Washington Post awoke to an explanation from Mr. Bernanke as to why he is pushing forward with such a gamble.
"The Federal Reserve has a particular obligation to help promote increased employment and sustain price stability," Mr. Bernanke wrote. "Steps taken this week should help us fulfill that obligation."
It's unusual to see the head of a major central bank in the papers like this. It happens, but rarely. Mr. Bernanke's missive to the Post underlines the need to build confidence in qunatitative easing, for which there is considerable doubt. For example, Allan Meltzer, the respected Fed historian at Carnegie Mellon University, on Wednesday called the Fed's worries about deflation "fraudulent." Some of the Tea Partiers who will be taking up residence in Washington next year would like to do away withe Fed so it would stop debasing their currency.
Perhaps anticipating political resistance, Mr. Bernanke emphasized that he is pushing forward precisely because his "dual mandate, set by Congress" leaves him little choice. Inflation is dangerously below the Fed's target and the unemployment is way too high, he said.
The Fed chief took on his critics, calling some of their concerns "overstated." There is no evidence that QE will lead to excesses in the money supply and rapid inflation, he wrote. If it does, "we have made all necessary preparations, and we are confident that we have the tools to unwind these policies at the appropriate time."