Bernanke up for new term
Obama sticking with Fed chairman who’s guiding U.S. through recession
OAK BLUFFS, Mass. – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, widely credited with taking aggressive action to avert an economic catastrophe after the financial meltdown last fall, will be nominated by President Barack Obama for a second term.
Obama plans to make the announcement today. A senior administration official discussed the nomination on the condition of anonymity.
In remarks prepared for the announcement, Obama praised Bernanke for leading the U.S. through a financial crisis and, with his expertise on the Great Depression, helping to prevent a similar crisis: “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.”
In sticking with Bernanke, Obama is looking to reassure the financial sector as well as foreign central banks that his administration has no plans to change course on its largely well-received approach to rescuing the industry from its meltdown or its management of overall monetary policy.
Bernanke has won admiration from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill even as some lawmakers have urged him to retain the Fed’s independence and warned him not to become too cozy with the administration.
Bernanke, at a Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., last week, was sanguine about the global economy, saying it was “beginning to emerge” from the recession and that the worst had been avoided.
For Obama, there was little political downside in choosing to nominate Bernanke to a second term. The move displays bipartisanship and a steady, unchanging hand on the economic rudder. With his hands full attempting a health care overhaul, changing the head of the central bank would have been a distraction Obama could little afford.
“The actions we have taken to stabilize our financial system, repair our credit markets, restructure auto industry and help the overall economy recover have all been steps of necessity, not choice,” Obama said in the prepared remarks for the announcement. “They have faced plenty of critics, some of whom argued that we should stay the course or do nothing at all. But taken together, all of these steps have brought our economy back from the brink. They are steps that are working.”