Leadership and Panics - TARP II and other reasons people are scared.

From the Wall Street Journal, a comment on an apparent lack of leadership in the financial crisis.

Leadership and Panic; TARP II and other reasons people are scared.

• Stocks are continuing their decline in the New Year since Congress has returned and as the federal government once again revs up its bailout machinery. Maybe this isn't a coincidence.

• With Barack Obama about to take the oath of office, this ought to be a moment for fresh, more consistent economic leadership. Instead, we're getting a new version of the same ad hoc policy and scare-tactics that marked 2008. No clear spokesman or leader has emerged with a strategy to rebuild the financial system.

• This is no way to start a recovery -- or a Presidency.

"Consider Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who used a London speech on Tuesday to pat the Fed on the back as the Horatio at the Bridge of this panic. This would have been appropriate for a Princeton seminar a couple of years from now. Amid the current uncertainty, however, he succeeded mainly in suggesting that the financial system is in even worse shape than we thought, the President-elect's "stimulus" isn't sufficient, and thus more of Mr. Bernanke's policy magic will be needed to save the day."

Strong leadership is required or the effort to revitalize the economy will stall.

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