Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pushed back against past criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders over the Fed’s action during the 2008 financial crisis, calling the Vermont senator — and others — “mistaken” in their criticisms.
Sanders specifically has taken aim at Bernanke and his job performance on more than one occasion, including in 2009 when he said Bernanke “failed at all four core responsibilities of the Federal Reserve” during the crisis.
“I understand the anger. I understand the politicians are going to respond to the public’s concern about the economy, about their own jobs and so on. I understand that. But I think that substantively that they were mistaken,” Bernanke said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I concede that regulators and Congress and many people didn’t see the crisis coming and made mistakes. But once the crisis began, I think the Fed acted appropriately and aggressively and did what had to be done to get us back through the other side,” Bernanke continued. “I think that those criticisms substantively are not accurate.”
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