By David Stockman of David Stockman’s Contra Corner.

In February 2004, Ben Bernanke famously declared the business cycle had been tamed and took a bow on behalf of enlightened monetary management, claiming it was the principal source of this beneficent development. Exactly 55 months later, of course, he terrorized the congressional leadership and a clueless president with the frightening proposition that a Great Depression 2.0 was just around the corner.

As to why he had been so stupendously wrong, Bernanke did not say. Nor did he explain why the brilliantly “stable” US economy had suddenly stumbled to …