The Federal Reserve System seems to be regaining a measure of its former prestige, despite (or perhaps thanks to) continued sniping, left and right. Next year will be the hundredth anniversary of its creation. There is a growing recognition that, while the Fed failed in its supervision of bank lending, spectacularly and instructively, it has performed admirably its other two tasks: panic control and, in the years since 1979, price stability and full employment.