Gulf still waiting for US Fed chief to make right move

Let us now praise famous Ben, the Federal Reserve chairman who, in a nation where nearly one in 10 people is out of a job, has managed to keep his despite failing as banking tsar to prevent a financial crisis so severe that it plunged the US and the global economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

This week Barack Obama announced that he would reappoint Ben Bernanke, who was originally installed in 2006 by the US president’s predecessor and political rival, George W Bush, when Mr Bernanke’s term ends next January.

This might seem like a quintessential example of what some call “failing up”. Perhaps what it really underscores, though, is the tendency of investors, in this case the US government, to react to a losing trade by doubling down. Why, indeed, switch horses halfway through the race?

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