Diana Furchgott-Roth of the Hudson Institute thinks the Fed's Operation Bear Stearns was better executed than the British government's nationalization of Northern Rock—but she still frets about the overall inflationary impact of Ben Bernanke's deluge of dollars (boldface mine):
The expediency of the Fed's recent actions can be positively contrasted with those of the British government in the case of Northern Rock, the British bank that experienced a loss of confidence in September 2007. The British government took more than five months to decide what to do with Northern Rock, increasing investors' anxiety about the overall banking system. Lloyd's Bank, another leading British financial institution, offered to purchase Northern Rock for $8 per share at the time, but the government did not allow it to do so and ended up nationalizing the bank last month, by which time the share value had fallen to $2.... The disadvantage of the Fed's swift, authoritative intervention is the risk of inflation. As the central bank creates credit and lowers rates, the dollar loses value. A falling dollar drives up the price of commodities, especially oil, and of imported goods, from sneakers to computers.
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