Akkam’s Razor

Disclaimer:  I am by no stretch of the imagination an economist.

In listening to Ben Bernake's statement on the state of the economy and in consideration of the fiscal interventions as well as the pending economic stimulus package, its relevant to revisit the academic specialty of Mr. Bernake - the Great Depression.  As I had written previously:

The Wall Street Journal (subscribers only) has come to the same conclusion I did about Ben Bernake, prospective replacement for Alan Greenspan - he’s been very influenced by his academic research into the Great Depression.

The title of this post - "tickling the dragon's tail" - refers to a Manhattan Project era criticality testing with fissionable material [via Wikipedia]:

On May 21, 1946, Slotin and seven other colleagues performed an experiment that involved the creation of one of the first steps of a fission reaction by placing two half-spheres of beryllium (a neutron reflector) around a plutonium core. The experiment used the same 6.2-kilogram (13.7 lb) plutonium core that had irradiated Daghlian. Slotin grasped the upper beryllium hemisphere with his left hand through a thumb hole at the top while he maintained the separation of the half-spheres using the blade of a screwdriver with his right hand, having removed the shims normally used.^[1] Using a screwdriver was not a normal part of the experimental protocol.

At 3:20 p.m., the screwdriver slipped and the upper beryllium hemisphere fell, causing a "prompt critical" reaction and a burst of hard radiation.^[8] At the time, the scientists in the room observed the "blue glow" of air ionization and felt a "heat wave". In addition, Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand.^[1] Slotin instinctively jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper beryllium hemisphere and dropping it to the floor. He exposed himself to a lethal dose (around 2100 rems, or 21 Sv) of neutron and gamma radiation.^[13] (Slotin's radiation dose was identical to the amount he would have received had he been 4800 feet (1463 m) away from the detonation of an atomic bomb.^[14])

As soon as Slotin left the building, he vomited, a common reaction from exposure to extremely intense ionizing radiation.^[1] Slotin's colleagues rushed him to the hospital, but irreversible damage had already been done. His parents were informed of their son's inevitable death and a number of volunteers donated blood for transfusions, but the efforts proved futile.^[1] The accident ended all hands-on assembly work at Los Alamos. At first, the incident was classified and not made known even within the laboratory; Robert Oppenheimer and other colleagues later reported severe emotional distress at having to carry on with normal work and social activities while they secretly knew that their colleague lay dying.

Louis Slotin died nine days later on May 30,^[15] in the presence of his parents.

It's with this in mind that I contemplate Bernake's domain of expertise and how it informs both his fiscal ideology and likely interventions.  Indeed, the current intervention's taken by the Fed neatly straddle what Bernake theorizes exacerbated and extended the Great Depression: