Bernanke's testimony admitted the obvious, that he had no clue
that a housing bubble even existed, let alone that it would
burst in late 2007, while at the same time claiming there was
little he could have done to prevent the crisis or mitigate its
impact upon the economy. Bernanke argued that several Wall
Street giant financial firms such as Lehman Brothers failed
because he had too little legal power to bail them out. "It was
with great reluctance and sadness that I conceded there was no
other option" than allowing Lehman to fail, Bernanke told
investigators, concluding he lacked the legal authority to bail
out Lehman Brothers. Bernanke explained that “the Federal
Reserve under normal conditions is permitted to lend only to
depository institutions and had the authority to lend to
nondepositories only in unusual and exigent circumstances. Thus,
the Federal Reserve could not directly address liquidity
problems at nondepositories until the crisis was well underway.”
But perhaps the most unbelievable part of Be