David Stockman

David Stockman looks at Washington’s response to the recent myriad of financial crises. He argues that the American state—especially the Federal Reserve—has fallen prey to the politics of crony capitalism. In The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America Stockman looks at some of what he calls corruptors and defenders of sound money, fiscal rectitude, and free markets, including Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Fed chairmen Greenspan and Bernanke, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Later today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will appear in a scheduled press conference for the first time. Economists are watching closely, as one off-hand comment by him could send global markets soaring or plunging. Bernanke hopes to bolster the public’s confidence in the Fed, while simultaneously pulling back the curtain on some of the nation's central bank's signature bureaucratic secrecy.