I don't envy Bernanke, but it's difficult to feel any sympathy for the situation he's in when it becomes apparent that he's a man with only one answer to any question -- print more money!

But seriously -- today's 3/4 pt rate cut proves Bernanke to be a dangerous man, woefully unfit for the job, who is likely to destroy the dollar while failing to avert the recession that we're already in.

Of course, "dangerous" assumes that you don't believe the Fed's role is to prop up the equity markets, which are in need of capitulation. Bernanke is only going to draw out the misery we're already in. His "solution" to the crisis is to recreate the situation that got us into this mess. Yet his strategy simply transfers the brunt of the downturn (for the time being) from the balance sheets of investors to the backs of the working middle class -- who, you may have observed, aren't doing so well lately.

Big Picture worries that "A compromised, political Fed, working on behalf of speculators, to the detriment of ordinary taxpayers, [will be] proven to be a paper tiger" if the DOW nonetheless plunges 500 points or more today. That could happen, or it could not. But regardless of where the markets end up today, the one thing that has definitely capitulated in this country is any sense of responsibility. Privatize the profits, socialize the risk is the mantra of our times. And Bernanke is nothing if not a man of our times.