Bernanke Cautiously Lauds His Movie Double: The Ticker

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking this afternoon about the U.S. economic outlook, drew big laughs from the Economic Club of Minneapolis for his response to this question from an audience member: How would you rate actor Paul Giamatti's portrayal of you in the recent movie "Too Big to Fail?"

Bernanke: "I didn't see that movie. I saw the original."

Later he added: "I think Paul Giamatti is an excellent actor. And in fact I met him. He asked to come meet with me, so I had him over for lunch at the Federal Reserve. And first thing I found out about him was that his father was the commissioner of baseball, Bart Giamatti. So what do you think we talked about for the whole lunch?"

And with that his talk was done.

(Jonathan Weil is a columnist for Bloomberg View.)