Since nothing less than the fate of the free world depended on the judgment of Ben Bernanke, I thought I?d touch base with David Wessel, the Wall Street Journal economics editor, who published In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke?s War on the Great Panic.

I doubted David could tell me anything more about the former Princeton professor I didn?t already know. I couldn?t have been more wrong, as David gave me some fascinating insights into the inner soul of our much-vaunted Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke was the smartest kid in rural Dillon, South Carolina, who, through a series of improbable accidents, and intervention by a local black civil rights leader, ended up at Harvard.

He built his career on studying the Great Depression, then the closest thing to paleontology economics had to offer, a field focused so distantly on the past that it was irrelevant.

Bernanke took over the Fed when Greenspan was considered a rock star, inhaling his libertarian, free-market, Ayn Rand inspired philosophy in great giant gulps.

Within a year the economy had suddenly transported itself back to the Jurassic Age, and the landscape was suddenly overrun with T-Rex?s and Brontosauri. He tried to stop the panic 150 different ways, 125 of which were terrible ideas, the remaining 25 saving us from the Great Depression II. This is why unemployment is now only 5%? instead of 25%.

The Fed governor is naturally a very shy and withdrawing person and would have been quite happy limiting his political career to the Princeton, NJ school board.

To rebuild confidence, he took his campaign to the masses, attending town hall meetings and pressing the flesh like a campaigning first term congressman.

The price tag for Ben?s success has been large, with the Fed balance sheet exploding from $800 million to $4 trillion, solely on his signature. The true cost of the financial crisis won?t be known for a decade or more.

The biggest risk is that we grow complacent, having pulled back from the brink and let desperately needed reforms of the financial system and the rebuilding of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac slide.

Ben Bernanke?s legacy will be defined by how well his successor, my friend, Janet Yellen, does her job. Unwind the bubble too soon and we go back into a real depression. Too late and hyperinflation hits.

That?s when we find out who Ben Bernanke really was.

I am taking off today on my Spring 2016 US Road Show, hitting seven cities in seven days. The schedule will include:

Friday, April 15 - Houston, TX

Monday, April 18 ? Miami, FL

Tuesday, April 19 ? Atlanta, GA

Wednesday, April 20 ? Washington DC

Thursday, April 21 ? Boston, MA

Friday, April 22 ? New York, NY

Monday, April 25 ? Chicago, IL

To purchase tickets for the luncheons, please go to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, click on the ?STRATEGY LUNCH? tab in the second row, then the ?USA? tab, and then click on the city of your choice.

These are small groups, usually 6-12, giving me the opportunity to answer any individual questions you may have, as well as enabling me to learn how to improve your service.

Since I will be running in and out of airports, hotels, and lunches for the next week, I won?t be able to file my regular in-depth research reports and incisive market updates. So my intrepid staff will be sending you my ?golden oldies? for the interim.

This is so new subscribers can benefit from past research nuggets and legacy subscribers can review pieces they either missed the first time around, or have forgotten.

Don?t worry, I?ll still be watching the markets. I am THAT addicted. The modern world?s panoply of beeping electronic devices, like iPhones and iPads, make this easy.

While sitting in airport club lounges, I?ll also be knocking out the next week?s letters, drawing on the hundreds of ideas I constantly have swirling around in my head. If you only knew what I find in there sometimes!

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader team is currently in a major expansion mode, and we have doubled our staff since the beginning of the year. The result will be a series of new products and services for your benefit that will knock your socks off, as well as enhance your trading ability.

Yes, this is costing me millions of dollars. But I?m sure that it will be the best investment I?ll ever make, except maybe for those Tesla shares (TSLA) I bought six years ago at $16.

It appears that in this zero or negative interest rate world there is a lot of demand for the 38% average annualized return the Trade Alert service has delivered. And a lot of followers make a lot more than that! It looks like my service will be paying for quite a few new Tesla Model S-1?s and Model X?s this year.

Sure, the last six months have been tough. This too shall pass.

I?ll take this opportunity to say thanks again for supporting my research.

Good luck and good trading.

John Thomas

Hitting the Road