Obama's proposed changes to taxes are pretty close to what you are recommending: he would raise taxes on the wealthy, and reduce them at lower incomes. [Although he is not recommending a 100% tax rate at any particular income level, and I rather strongly suspect he won't, not wishing to run the risk of being immediately labeled as a Marxist. As some are already accusing him of being.] And I favor those changes to our tax code, which is one of the reasons I will vote for Obama.

But I believe you are wrong in asserting that the Fed "cannot...strengthen the dollar, thus reducing inflation". The Fed could certainly do this by beginning a campaign of raising the Fed funds rate and discount rate, just as they have helped to trigger a serious bout of inflation by their nine-month campaign of lowering those rates. They should, in other words, begin to reverse what they started doing last August, when the credit crisis first made itself evident.

The high inflation, and indeed stagflation, of the late 1970s, was brought under control by the 'tight money' policies of Paul Volcker. Those methods do work, even though they are painful to many people in the interim. Sometimes harsh medicine is the best thing a doctor can prescribe.

Mr. Bernanke must decide whether he wishes to emulate Paul Volcker, or Arthur Burns, the unlamented Fed Chairman of the mid-1970s who figured that the way to help Americans with soaring gas prices was to print more money, which is akin to fighting a fire by pouring gasoline on it.