Days ago, Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, explained to senators that the Fed had expectations for a “moderately stronger” recovery than previously expected for the coming fiscal year. In addition to defending current monetary policies that have eased the impact of the recession, he insisted for Congress to develop a plausible spending plan in order to alleviate mounting debt from expenditures. He claims the Fed is maintaining its focus of controlling price inflation/deflation, even though other factors such as high unemployment rates and near-zero interest rates overshadow such successes. While Bernanke has been the subject of critics for his financial policies, few have commented on his successful role as a public intellectual: someone to relay the economic outlook to policy makers and the general population.
Stephen Mack’s The "Decline" of Public Intellectuals? claims:
That is, our notions of the public intellectual need to focus less on who or what a public intellectual is—and by extension, the qualifications for getting and keeping the title. Instead, we need to be more concerned with the work public intellectuals must do, irrespective of who happens to be doing it.
In these regards, Mack suggests that a public intellectual should not be judged by their competencies in their field of knowledge, but by their ability to effectively perform the basic tasks of a public intellectual. For Bernanke, this suggests that as chairman of the Fed, he must effectively relay information concerning the economy to the layman. The Federal Reserve chairman is a position in which one person is given the specific tasks of consolidating masses of economic data ranging from economic scenario models to financial patterns, all which are used in establishing economic policies. This information is then presented to the layman, whether that is the general public or Congress. Both the public and political figures require simplification in the presentation of the Fed’s findings, as they are typically unfamiliar with economic terminology, let alone patterns and proper actions to facilitate or prevent market changes given complex scenarios.
Public intellectuals are assumed to fill the position of assessing information and then simplifying it for the more basic followers. In terms of the actions taken by Ben Bernanke, he explains economic conditions on a multitude of levels based on the conceptual understanding of his audience. Some however, might argue that they do not completely comprehend this information. This is seen with those who question the effectiveness of many of the monetary economic policy actions taken by the Fed, such as multiple bailouts for financial firms. Some critics claim this is a poor allocation of funds, but are typically unable to reach any culminating factual answer as to why, and often ignore the consequences of their proposed “money-saving” plans. Some can blame Bernanke for his inability to effectively communicate policy actions and their underlying effects on the economy as the reasons for this lack of clarity. However, considering the wealth of information that is communicated, the price of few uncertainties is a small price to pay for the general masses properly understand the given economic conditions.
Critics are focused primarily on the challenging, and often confusing, policy actions of Bernanke as the Fed Chairman, but when he is questioned on his title as a public intellectual, the answer is much clearer. He fulfills his obligation to transmit the nation’s economic performance into brief speeches and statements from which the audience can gain an understanding of what is taking place both now and in the future for the American economy.
