But now, as the meltdown in credit markets threatens major institutions on Wall Street and a recession appears inevitable, Mr. Bernanke is inventing policy on the fly.
"What I really love," the then first lady told her great friend, "is inventing policies, seeing them put into practice, making things work.
I don't want us to invent policies for newspaper headlines, I want us to get it right for the long term.
The note of political cynicism seems to ring through the orchestra with oboe player Richard Partridge, 69, feeling that "all the parties are inventing policies on the hoof to bribe the voters".
But unlike in the case of sports, Britain has even forgotten that it invented industrial policy.
An alternative would be to follow the model of the International Monetary Fund and establish an Independent Evaluation Office, which is able to publish reports without recourse from the ministers or officials who invented the policy in the first place.
Like so many modern sports – football, tennis, cricket, rugby, badminton, and what not – Britain invented industrial policy but other people have got much better at it because, well, they have been more serious about it.
In a plan hatched by George F. Kennan, known for inventing the policy of containment, and backed by the C.I.A. director Allen Dulles, the supersecret Office of Policy Coordination financed a multimillion-dollar campaign of sabotage in Soviet-bloc countries.
I am gRepublicansthavecountried
Going further back in time, Britain actually invented modern industrial policy.
