Bernanke’s Worst Nightmare Is This Man’s Boxes: Caroline Baum

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Ben Bernanke arrived at his office a week ago and came face to face with his worst nightmare.

Staring out at the Federal Reserve chairman from page C1 of the Feb. 3 edition of the Wall Street Journal was a photo of a man and his boxes. The man was John Anton, founder and president of Anton Sports. The boxes contained his inventory of T-shirts. Because the price was right, Anton borrowed $300,000 at 2.45 percent to lay in a year’s supply -- 2,500 boxes compared with a more normal 30 -- in anticipation of higher cotton prices.