As most everyone knows by now (forgive me for being out of town and having a life and not covering this earlier, yeesh), our favorite bearded central banker, one Zimbabwe Ben Bernanke, will be appearing with Jim Lehrer for a "town hall meeting" towards the end of this month.

Now if dear reader has been in a cave for the last, oh, nearly 100 years and does not realize, the fact that the head of America's central bank is willing to take on the mainstream media for a candid interview is unprecedented.

Put aside the alphabet soup of recent Fed programs. Put aside TARP. Put aside the Fed's absolutely insane reaction to the downward spiral of late 2008. All I ask of you, dear reader, is to ask yourself why our central bank would suddenly feel compelled after nearly 100 years of obscurity to send its top soldier to the frontlines of the battle between finance and logic on the public stage. Now?

I must give Bernanke credit for playing the game. If anyone were equipped to come out showing off the Fed's weapons (whatever remains, that is), I suppose our dear Zimbabwe Ben is it.

Knowing that the Fed Board of Governors sometimes makes its way here to Jr Deputy Accountant, may I now request their full attention? Please?

Listen, boys, point to the Board for arranging this in the first place. Transparency? Not even fucking close. You wish this equated to the elusive "transparency" that Fedbashers and taxpayers alike have been begging for as long as there has been a central bank to plead for transparency from. And as much as I would like to bag on the Fed and call this some cheesy PR stunt pulled off for the sake of getting the Fedbashers off their backs, I am holding out some hope that the Fed does this one correctly and allows Bernanke a moment to be himself.

No, not the central banker with the unbuttoned dress shirt sitting on some Dillon, South Carolina bench a la 60 Minutes, the real Ben Bernanke. Does he think that we bought that? Maybe most of braindead, ignorant America bought it - who is this bald, bearded dude on CBS tonight? What's on American Idol? Duhhhhh - but those of us who consider ourselves fortunate enough to be aware did not buy it for a second. Bernanke's childhood home foreclosed on, America plunging deeper into the depths of recession by the minutes and what the fuck was this about green shoots? As if.

But if this is done correctly, it can be a great chance for the Fed to take a genuine stab at transparency. Now whether or not they can pull that off remains to be seen. We know on which side of that particular line I will be standing (hint: it starts with F and ends in FAIL - whazzat?) but I sincerely hope Bernanke brings more than just his A game. Some honesty would be incredibly nice. Just sayin.

Please, please, Bernanke I beg you: GET THIS RIGHT.

One more attempt at furthering the obscure agenda and I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out the big snark guns

Business Week helps us digest the pure LOLZ of this event. Let's hope Bernanke trains even harder for this than he did his latest appearance on the Hill eh?

Since taking over as chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke has championed a more plain-speaking, transparent approach. Now, he’s ramping it up. In a move that may have been inevitable in the Age of Obama, the Fed has announced — you got it — that Bernanke will participate in a town hall meeting in St. Louis in late July.

Here's the announcement from the Fed:

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will participate in an hour-long town hall-type meeting with local citizens at 7 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. CDT) on Sunday, July 26 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, Mo. The event will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

The announcement comes as Washington is rife with speculation over what the future holds for Bernanke -- will Obama name him to another term when the current one is up in January, or not?

It's far from a simple question. For starters, there are plenty of questions about the job he's done. Many laud him for the aggressive role the Fed played in stabilizing the financial system, and believe the country might be in an even more serious crisis if he hadn't been inventive and stepped up the Fed's role.

But critics in Congress and elsewhere are raising increasing questions about whether Bernanke has gone too far. They criticize the active role Bernanke took in encouraging bank takeovers, and worry that he's flooded the system with far too much money, with dire consequences coming for inflation and the dollar.

At the same time, it's also widely believed that Larry Summers, the president's top economic advisor, would like the job. No one knows yet whether Obama is likely to move in that direction or not. But if he were so inclined, the politics of dumping Bernanke for Summers could be very tricky depending on where the economy stands come January.

All in all, not a bad time for Bernanke to buff up the public image. Besides, I bet they're just dying to ask about quantitative easing out there in the "Show-Me" state...

Ha, cute, BW. btw, you might want to hire a better editor for letting "consequenses" get through the spell checker. You're welcome. And seriously, if you're going to talk about "quantitative easing," please be sure you spell that right too. Jesus, who wrote this damn article? If you need qualified writers that bad for Christ's sake, call me, I've got an extra 15 minutes a week to spare.

That being said, wonder what Bernanke's got to Show Me, you, and the rest of us? I can't wait to see.