Volcker Slayed Inflation. Bernanke Saved the Banks. Can Powell Do Both?

History remembers Paul Volcker as the slayer of inflation, and Ben Bernanke as the crisis firefighter. Jerome Powell is in danger of having to play both roles at once — or, what may be worse, to choose between them.

On the face of it, Powell’s Federal Reserve this week pushed ahead with what’s been its policy for the past year — raising interest rates to bring down inflation — and so did other major central banks. But in reality everything’s changed, after a string of bank collapses sent tremors through world markets.