It would have been a real scandal if the president of NYFRB took it upon himself to decide to plunge Europe into the crisis that they seem to have only delayed until now.

While I don't dispute the rest of your analysis, I feel the need to reiterate that keeping insolvent private banks alive is not helping. Insolvent private banks should be separated from their clearing functions posthaste, and then have the carcass put through ordinary bankruptcy proceedings.

Now, it may well be that it would have been irresponsible to pull the plug on a large number of insolvent European banks in the context of a European federal financial regulator and market maker that is studiously refusing to actually perform either of these jobs. In which case the blame is shared by the witless gold bugs at the ECB.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.