The cost of making enemies

Ben Bernanke is still getting used to his new job. The apparently shifting views of the US Federal Reserve Board chairman has made the dollar gyrate. But the greenback’s future may be slipping out of Bernanke’s hands. Bernanke implied last Thursday that it was about time for a pause in the up-to-now relentless rise in US overnight rates. Largely in response, the dollar weakened across the board, by almost three cents against the euro. Then the chairman let slip Monday night that he did not want...