Now He Tells Us

Treasury Secretary recently acknowledged that the Federal Reserve's low interest rate policy contributed to the financial crisis.

Although that has been the view of this column since the crisis began (see here), policy makers have been loathe to admit they, or their colleagues, bear a responsibility for the crisis. They have preferred to let Wall Street take the blame for a government-created problem.

And if the Obama or Bush administrations admitted this earlier, it might have reduced some of the impetus for further government intervention in the economy, such as the stimulus bill.