Ben Bernanke has taken a beating over the last few weeks. With global markets in freefall, critics have accused the Federal Reserve chairman variously of being a wimp on inflation to being a tough-love inflation fighter, brandishing higher interest rates as his weapon of choice.

Was it only a few weeks ago, in the aftermath of the appointment of Henry Paulson as Treasury secretary, that markets were gushing over the new dream team at the helm of US economic policymaking? How quickly the newly appointed can fall and how easily markets forget lessons of the past.