BEN BERNANKE has the face of a semi-successful character actor. The chairman of the Federal Reserve has that “whatshisface” quality – not so much memorable as vaguely familiar. Didn’t that guy play the vice-president in Independence Day? Last Thursday he was back at the day job telling Congress that a recession can be averted. It wasn’t a convincing performance.

As Bernanke tried to calm the markets, the markets collapsed. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 306 points, capping a 14.2% slide from its October high. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is off to its worst January on record. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small companies, sank 20%.

Economists were quick to point out that these dramatic slides haven’t always triggered a recession. A downturn followed a sharp sell-off in 1990; a similar drop in 1998 came and went with no apparent effect.

The stock market isn’t the only part of the financial world indicating trouble, however. The housing market is in panic – lenders foreclosed on 384,000 home loans in the third quarter of last year. The Baltic Dry index, which tracks shipping rates of goods such as iron ore, cement and coal that feed booming economies, has plummeted. Shares of energy and materials companies, top performers last year, are suffering.

Two hundred or so miles north in Queens, New York, Mike Bloomberg, the mayor, was giving a far better performance.

Given the fact that the financial markets are in meltdown, New York should be shuddering. Wall Street pay packets prop up the property market, pack the restaurants and support an army of workers in the service industries.

The mayor said there was “a difficult year” ahead, the city is staring at a possible revenue shortfall of more than $3 billion. Fortunately for New York, Bloomberg is an ant, not a grasshopper. In the good times the mayor paid down future obligations instead of blowing it.

Bloomberg didn’t restrict his state of the city speech to money. Flanked by five immigrant families, he denounced “those wailing against immigration” and “politicians who, all of a sudden, have embraced xenophobia”. A stab at Rudolph Giuliani, his predecessor, a presidential hopeful and a man who was once friendly to illegal immigrants but now wants to drive them into the sea.

“I say: open your eyes,” Bloomberg said. “Take a look behind me. This is what makes America great. This is New York City. This is freedom. This is compassion and democracy and opportunity.”

His speech was watched in Washington almost as carefully as Bernanke’s. Bloomberg keeps being touted as a possible runner for America’s top job, but protests unconvincingly that he’s not interested.

He’s a little short, but there’s something very believable about his performance. Mayor Mike could play a convincing president.

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