Say you’re the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the most powerful of the twelve in the system. The country is in a recession — sorry, on the brink of a recession. Who do you hire in this fragile period to oversee the buying and selling of important government securities? How about the guy who managed Bear Stearns’ risk from 2006 through 2008, the period that immediately preceded the 85-year-old bank’s total implosion, which even after you bailed it out to the tune of $29 billion subsequently set off a worldwide banking crisis with no end in sight? Yes! Great idea. Solid choice. No, what? [WSJ]
