Bernanke reappointed

MarketWatch reports:

President Obama made it official Tuesday morning, announcing that he is reappointing Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

In a short statement in Martha's Vineyard with Bernanke standing at his side, Obama said Bernanke's background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression.

"Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and outside-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic free fall," Obama said.


I think this is the proper move. No one is perfect, and I don't think any single person can solve the economic problems, but Bernanke is more capable than many others. The leading candidate to replace him, according to some leaks a few months ago, was Lawrence Summers. Summers was favoured by some Democrats (Bernanke is a Republican although he seems to stay neutral on political issues, unlike Greenspan) but I didn't think he seemed suited for the task at hand.

Comments

  1. Daniel M. RyanAugust 26, 2009 at 12:25 AM

    Of course, had you been a cyncial inflationist, your opinion of Larry Summers might have been different...

    ReplyDelete

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