Comment Rescue:

In response to this post at Calculated Risk (that I found via Atrios), Pay Raise For Congress!! writes:

Taken together, most experts say that what the Fed has done in the last several months is unparalleled in modern times. Indeed, the Bear Stearns deal relied on a provision of the Federal Reserve Act not used since the 1930s. As a result, investment experts, many Americans and most members of Congress are bursting with questions.

Mr. Bernanke has yet to explain, for example, exactly how he negotiated the Bear Stearns deal, how he decided to accept the $30 billion in dubious collateral, who set the share price for Bear Stearns and what role was played by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former Goldman Sachs executive.

On Wednesday the Fed chief begins two days of testimony, his first opportunity to answer some of these questions. They are certain to focus not only on Bear Stearns but also on why the Fed and others let things deteriorate to the point of crisis, and whether their actions should serve as a precedent or guideline for the future of regulation of the financial sector.

“There’s a lot of concern that this was done ad hoc,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, which is to hold the hearings on Wednesday, referring to Bear Stearns. “The irony is that very few people are saying, ‘You shouldn’t have done it.’ A lot of people have questions about the before and after.”

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has also signaled that at his panel’s hearing on Thursday he will ask Mr. Bernanke about Bear Stearns and why the financial sector’s problems were allowed to fester.

The nation’s trust in the Fed and the administration, Mr. Dodd said this week, “has been shattered — not because regulators did too much, but because they did too little.”

My reaction: Too bad Delaware is not represented in Congress. Those states and districts that have actual representatives in Congress must feel very lucky.