The Bernanke Market

Jeff Sommers "Strategies" article in today's New York Times business section rates Ben Bernanke by how well the market did during his tenure which is a rather mindless measure of competence.  I have blogged previously that despite being an Ayn Rand Libertarian, Alan Greenspan failed catastrophically as Chairman of the Federal Reserve because he promoted concentration of the banking system with the systematic elimination of fear, the great economic regulator, among the big players.  Big banks could borrow at lower at rates and leverage higher than smaller competitors so that business drifted their way exacerbating the trend toward bigger and riskier behavior.  As a libertarian I agree there should be less regulation, even banking regulation, but I consider Greenspan a traitor to my ideals by not forcing one small easy to understand regulation. That being whenever a financial institution reaches an asset level of x, let's say one tenth of a percent of GDP, that it is required to break up into independent pieces, spin offs in Wall Street parlance. After all Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations describes free markets as having many players on both sides, which apparently is something the former Chairman forgot.