Bernanke is doing what he's being paid to do: stabilize the situation when the markets freeze up. When banks stopped lending to each other, both here and in Europe - a worldwide situation, I remind you - he had to do his job, the primary job of the Federal Reserve, which is to provide reserves for the banks when they can't get those reserves on the open market.
A quick primer for those who may not know: what goes on in the Fed Funds market is the buying and selling of money between banks all day long, this trading done around the reserve position that the bank has to hold according to Fed rules. Once every two weeks, on a Wednesday, they have to report their reserves for the prior two weeks, and the number has to be close to what is mandated. Money is traded back and forth between banks because out in the real world deposits are taken and loans are made, and so money goes in and out at levels that are, short term, unpredictable. So, money goes around the various banks as they position themselves to get their reserves in shape for reporting.
That interbank market is what froze up, both here and in Europe, where I'm sure the rules are somewhat different from what I just described, but the end goal is the same.
The reason the Fed dropped the penalty somewhat on the discount rate was to prevent some bank from hesitating to go to the window when they needed to, and this hesitation causing a major problem, which in this climate of fear, would have snowballed out of control and possibly caused a global collapse.
If that's what you want, well, you're scum, pure and simple. Otherwise, be happy Bernanke did what he's paid to do.
