text: In any event, suppose that the NPR and WSJ reporters are correct (as I believe that they are) that, all things considered, loose credit and substantial deficit spending would have been better for the U.S. economy over the last five years than the policy we have had--loose credit combined with an initial burst of too-small deficit spending followed by a premature effort to lower the deficit. If that supposition is correct, then it is owing almost entirely to a happy accident that the Fed has been able to use monetary policy to push back against some of the harmful effects of the political branches' fiscal policy. What accident is that? Why, Fed independence, of course.