Mr Bernanke, like many economists, thinks more fiscal stimulus is what is needed now.
Mr Bernanke, himself a Republican, took office in 2006 hoping to stay out of political debates.
Mr Paulson and Mr Bernanke are attempting to prevent the crisis from reaching that stage.
Mr Bernanke believes that, if a central bank injects enough money, it can always reverse deflation.
Mr Bernanke has weathered his first difficult passage, but it is unlikely to be his last.
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In a speech on March 20th, Mr Bernanke analysed reasons why yields might be so thin.
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Mr Romney, by contrast, has vigorously attacked QE and pledged to replace Mr Bernanke.
Mr Bernanke may plan to stay the course, but the chorus of criticism is already doing damage.
That ought to help to protect Mr Bernanke from the charge levelled at Alan Greenspan, his predecessor.
Mr Bernanke blames Japan's defective banking system and a lack of determination by policymakers to fight deflation.
If they do not agree to that, there is nothing Mr Bernanke can do to help them.
Mr Bernanke may be forced to sit on his hands until he is confronted with a crisis.
Mr Bernanke is well aware of the hats that belong to him and the ones that do not.
But do not expect Mr Bernanke to bend to the demands of overextended investors suffering through short-run volatility.
This week, in his first speech on the economic outlook since July, Mr Bernanke painted a much brighter picture.
Mr Bernanke's speech showed that he is not unhappy about the economy's deceleration.
It is hard to imagine the plain-spoken Mr Bernanke following Mr Greenspan's circumlocutions.
The US treasury secretary was accompanied not only by Mr Bernanke but also by six members of President Bush's cabinet.
This is Mr Bernanke's preferred cure, but it has not stopped deflation in Japan, where long-term bond yields are 0.6%.
Members of the Senate Banking Committee voted 16 to seven to back Mr Bernanke as head of the central bank.
Mr Bernanke will be under great pressure to repeat the folly if investors and politicians clamour for more rate cuts.
For over a year, since August 2007, central bankers, principally Mr Bernanke, have been trying to make this toxic debt liquid.
But Mr Bernanke has said unemployment has got to come down before the central bank takes its foot off the gas.
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Mr Bernanke's term ends in early 2014 and in the unlikely event he wanted another, a Republican president would not grant it.
Now there is pressure for Mr Bernanke to work his magic again.
As Mr Bernanke also pointed earlier in the week, banks cannot do whatever they like with capital they receive from the state.
"What I am advising is a more gradual approach, " Mr Bernanke said.
Mr Bernanke later told a journalist that this reading was too doveish.
Mr Bernanke has defended the central bank's response to the global crisis.
For the past two years, Mr Bernanke has used the event, a conference of the world's central bankers, to indicate the Fed's intentions.
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