Bernanke has had his critics, not the least of whom has been Dr. Doom himself, Nouriel Roubini, who has referred to the man as “Comrade Bernanke of the United Socialist State Republic of America,” among other things. But, when it comes down to the wire, it turns out Nouriel’s got Ben’s back. Who knew?

Still, when a liquidity and credit crunch emerged in the summer of 2007, Mr. Bernanke engineered a U-turn in Fed policy that prevented the crisis from turning into a near depression. He did this largely with actions and programs that were not in the traditional toolbox of monetary policy. The federal funds rate was effectively pushed down to zero to reduce borrowing costs and prevent the collapse of consumer demand and capital spending by business. New programs encouraged skittish institutions to resume lending. For the first time since the Great Depression, the Fed’s role as lender of last resort was extended to investment banks.

Mr. Bernanke also introduced a wide range of other programs, like those to maintain the functioning of the commercial paper market (which makes short-term loans to companies so they can cover operating expenses like payrolls). The Fed was involved directly in the rescue of financial institutions like Bear Stearns and American International Group. It lent money to foreign central banks to ease a global shortage of dollars. The Fed even committed to purchasing up to $1.7 trillion of Treasury bonds, mortgage-backed securities and agency debt to reduce market rates. These are all radical actions that had almost never been undertaken before.

He labels Bernanke’s actions as both “creative” and “aggressive,” and there is substantial truth there, we think, though those are qualities we would consider more praiseworthy in, say, a marketing campaign, and not necessarily in monetary policy. Additionally, if someone insists on being active, we’d think it’d be more useful to be proactive than reactive, but that’s neither here nor there. In the op-ed, Roubini does at least take Bernanke to task for what amounts to basically being blindsided by the housing bubble.

The last sentence of the op-ed rings a tiny bit omnious:

For this reason alone Mr. Bernanke deserves to be reappointed so that he can manage the Fed’s exit from its most radical economic intervention since its creation in 1913.

Hey, Ben, you created this tangled mess! Now it’s on you to get us out of it.