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From: Coffee House

My Fed bet is....

By Reed Hundt - October 24, 2005, 8:31AM

Bernanke. Polls close in one hour.

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MSNBC is announcing that Bernanke will be the nominee. They're crediting "Scoop" Russert with the sourcing. Guess those ol' ties still bind...

Posted by Prairie Sage
October 24, 2005 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink

Is this guy actually qualified? Or is this just another crony appointment. Bush picks Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court because she's the best lawyer within ten feet of his desk. Then he picks Bernanke for the Fed because he's the best economist in that same radius.
Is Bush too afraid of picking another Paul O'Neill, an outside person who might actually be independent?

Posted by existenz
October 24, 2005 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink

Bernanke was chosen because he has a combination of strong political and administrative skills and he belongs to the inner circle of economists who see merit in a predictable, rule-based approach to inflation targetting.

Opposite of a crony, he will uphold credibility and throw open transparency in the one area this regime cares about: money.

Posted by macdust
October 24, 2005 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink

Bernanke is well respected by economists. Paul Krugman, for instance, has indicated that he would be comfortable with a Bernanke fed chairmanship (on the condition that Bernanke not do idiotic things like endorsing irresponsible tax cuts ala Greenspan).

It is very important to note that fed picks are something presidents absolutely cannot screw up. If Bush picks someone that market views as unqualified, markets will crash and the US will lose foreign investment. Basically, there are big economic implications to the fed pick. If you think the revolt over Miers is big, it would be nothing compared to the chaos of him appointing a Miers-like fed chair.

Instead, Bush made the best choice he could by picking a person almost universally viewed as high qualified, and someone who is relatively close to him. Note there are people who are cozier with Bush, such as Hubbard, that the market wouldn't have supported. So i suppose he deserves credit, but its hard to give much credit for making an obvious, and rational choice (something we should be able to expect, but unfortunately aren't able to with this president).

Posted by rapid response
October 24, 2005 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink

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