Ben Bernanke And The 'Great Panic'

Fresh Air

Published August 3, 2009 at 10:24 AM EDT

Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel's new book, In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, examines the expanding powers of the Federal Reserve in the face of the current economic crisis.

According to Wessel, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke's efforts to head off financial disaster — including the helping the Treasury Department take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — were inspired a belief that "we came very close to Depression 2.0."

Wessel is the author of the Journal's weekly column Capital. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes for his work: one for a Boston Globe series on the persistence of racism in Boston, and another for his reporting on corporate wrong-doing for the Wall Street Journal.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

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