An employee of a think tank owns a house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington. He wants to refinance his mortgage, but the bank won’t give him a loan.

It is perhaps not the most shocking story in the world, but it becomes so when you learn that the think tank employee is Ben S. Bernanke, who was until earlier this year the chairman of the Federal Reserve, charged with setting the course of interest rate policy for the United States economy.

And it seems downright absurd when you consider that he now makes a reported $250,000 for giving a speech and has signed a book contract that is surely in the seven figures. His income this next couple of years will surely dwarf the value of his house (he and his wife bought it for $839,000 in 2004, and it is currently assessed at $815,000, according to District of Columbia property records).