Bush to Name Bernanke As New Fed Chairman

[Jon8503]

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
October 24, 2005 12:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to name Ben Bernanke, the current chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Greenspan has held the post since 1987. The announcement of his replacement is expected at 1 p.m.


The White House hadn't indicated previously when the announcement would come, but Mr. Greenspan has made clear he plans to leave office when his term is up at the end of January. Naming a successor to Mr. Greenspan now gives the Senate time to hold confirmation hearings and act on the nomination before January. For months, the three candidates cited most frequently had been Mr. Bernanke, along with economists Martin Feldstein of Harvard University, and Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University.

Mr. Bernanke served three years as a Fed governor before joining the administration in June. Before that, he taught economics at Princeton University. Mr. Feldstein, who has been on Harvard's faculty since 1969, was chairman of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 to 1984 and an adviser to the 2000 Bush campaign. Mr. Hubbard, who served two years as chairman of Mr. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, has been at Columbia since 1994 and currently is dean of its business school.

WSJ's Gerald Seib comments on Bush's selecting Ben Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman.Choosing a successor to Mr. Greenspan, 79 years old, is one of Mr. Bush's most important economic decisions. The Fed chairman wields unequaled influence over U.S. and world economic growth. The Fed's independence also frees its chairman to stake out policy positions different from those of the president or Congress, and Mr. Greenspan has used that independence to acquire considerable sway on nonmonetary policy issues such as the budget, taxes and Social Security.

Excerpt Taken from Todays Wall Street Journal Subscription Issue.

[xxqqqzme]

1. '...adviser to the 2000 Bush campaign...''

pay back time again!

[tx_dem41]

5. Read that passage closer next time. They are talking about one...

of the other candidates.

[Marr]

2. Hooray. He's apparently a Reaganomics guy then? And by that I mean

a criminal?

[tx_dem41]

6. Where does it say that he is a "Reaganomics guy"?

The only time Reagan is mentioned is when talking about one of the other candidates.

[The Witch]

3. Someone at National Review hated this guy in August.

Came up on a google search. http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_comment/tamny200508110924.asp

[On the Road]

4. That NR Editorialist is a Complete Idiot

As a self-proclaimed supply-sider, Tamny proclaims his belief that permanent economic growth depends on: businesses having confidence in the future, and governments lowering taxes, eliminating regulation, and generally getting out of the way. Excuse me, but this is the thinking that resulted in the Great Depression. I'm glad that no Fed Chairman has shared those views, at least for the last seventy years.

The editorialist criticizes Bernanke for wanting to do things like reach full employment, which according to Tamney doesn't exist because jobs can be exported. Scary? On the contrary, the following observations are reassuring:

"he didn’t discuss money in the Journal editorial, a June New York Times article noted Bernanke’s belief that the gold standard made the Great Depression worse. Plus, in a 2002 speech, he lauded the ability of the government to use the printing press to 'generate higher spending and hence positive inflation.'”

"Bernanke is clearly in the Keynesian camp on taxes, holding that they should be reduced during times of slack demand and increased when economic growth reaches its natural 'limits.'

[Neil Lisst]

7. OMG! Bush looks horrible!

He can barely read his lines.

If someone yelled BOO he'd crap his pants.

As for his appointment, any appointment by Bush sucks, you know that.