Rate Cuts Won't Help You; These Stocks Will

Editor's Note: Jon D. Markman writes a weekly column for CNBC on MSN Money that is republished here on TheStreet.com.

---

In a country whose populist heroes are rebels Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne and Bart Simpson, it is perhaps only fitting that our latest would-be real-world savior is an economist and banker whose monkish beard makes him look almost countercultural.

Unlike his fictional counterparts who always save the day with a snappy remark or a chop to the throat, Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke is working from a terrible script that is doomed. He seems like such a nice man that it's a pity he could go down in history as the first one-term Fed chief in decades, not to mention the accidental steward of one of the world economic system's darkest periods.

It's going to take me a few moments to explain, so bear with me. Here's the problem: Last Friday, Bernanke earned a round of applause from the media by bowing to White House and Wall Street pressure and slashing the rate that the Fed charges the nation's least-creditworthy commercial banks for loans from the public till. He also allowed these sketchy banks to put up their worst loans as collateral and radically lengthened the time that they are permitted to hold on to these borrowings from the standard single day to a month or more.

In doing so, the common belief is that Bernanke provided a much-needed shot of adrenaline to the financial system. Yet this medical metaphor, which seems so apt, really misses the point. What the Fed really did was perform an imperfect version of the Heimlich maneuver on the credit markets, dislodging a blockage in one section of its windpipe, only to allow the chicken bone to embed itself more firmly elsewhere. The Fed is now about to embark on a long series of interest rate cuts in the face of a global economic slowdown, but it has no proof that cheaper money can, by itself, unwind the worldwide credit crunch.