Ben Bernanke caused the Arab "cereal" revolutions?

Yes, our Federal Reserve's Bernanke.  No, he doesn't command over a military, and no he doesn't really print money.  So, what is the link you ask?

Step back for a second.  Back in October, I blogged about the aggressive approach that Uncle Ben was taking, and quoted Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, who explained how the global "economic" war was being fought:

To put it crudely, the US wants to inflate the rest of the world, while the latter is trying to deflate the US. The US must win, since it has infinite ammunition: there is no limit to the dollars the Federal Reserve can create. What needs to be discussed is the terms of the world’s surrender: the needed changes in nominal exchange rates and domestic policies around the world.

I liked his phrasing of "no limit to the dollars the Federal Reserve can create" for the powerful simplicity.  Inflation in the rest of the world--particularly in all those countries like India and China and the rest where economies were growing.  Inflation then would show up in various commodity prices, and food in particular.

And, boy, did food price inflation happen!  For instance, India's coalition government was all shook up when onion prices zoomed faster and higher than the rockets its space agency launched. More from Derek Thompson:

Dramatic inflation in corn, wheat and other agricultural products is feeding discontent throughout the Middle East, where families spend up to 40% of their income on food. When you glance at how the average Egyptian spends his money, you understand why food inflation can traumatize a country.

But what the heck does U.S. monetary policy have do with the price of wheat in Egypt? Remember that Bernanke's policy of "quantitative easing" aimed to stimulate the U.S. economy by printing trillions of dollars to encourage lending and spending. Easy money seems to have driven up equity prices (look at the stock market), but it might also have encouraged banks to plow their liquid cash into commodities -- like petroleum, copper, and wheat.

Of course, Bernanke doesn't think so.  He has been making the rounds defending his policies and offering  counterarguments to his critics.  I am thinking, hey, take a bow--you have done the world a huge favor by ridding a few dictators already, and it appears that quite a few more will follow suit.

Bravo, Ben Bernanke!  You did with paper what the mighty American military could not have ever achieved ...