President Barack Obama’s plan to renominate Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term at the U.S. central bank drew praise from Robert Parry, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Richard Berner, co-head of global economics at Morgan Stanley in New York; Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial Inc. in Chicago; David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisers in Vineland, N.J.; and Stanford University economist John Taylor, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary.
Morgan Stanley’s Berner:
“It’s not just that he’s done a great job of dealing creatively with the financial crisis. He’s shown leadership in doing that and he has capacity to deal with the challenges that lie ahead — continuing to help the economy and markets heal and engineering the exit strategy when it’s appropriate to do so, and second, to play a pivotal role in reforming the financial infrastructure.”
Former San Francisco Fed president Parry:
“It’s a superb move for the country. He’s someone who’s demonstrated an ability to work effectively in very difficult and uncertain circumstances. He’s done that quite well. I can’t say whether he’s the absolute best person out there, but he sure would look like it to me if I were the president.”
Mesirow’s Swonk:
“It’s an important move to give a sign of continuity and independence at a difficult time for the Fed. It gives Bernanke the go-ahead to continue along the path he’s set and see it through to its exit. He may have been too slow to react, but he was a quick learner, thought outside the box and was able to push his colleagues to think outside the box to deal with this recession. We’re going to need that in the future.”
Cumberland’s Kotok:
“Markets will like the removal of uncertainty now that President Obama has committed to Fed Chairman Bernanke’s reappointment. Uncertainty is the enemy of markets. Bernanke’s reappointment makes Fed policy a little more predictable.”
Stanford’s Taylor:
“I think it’s a good decision. Hopefully, he’ll bring good policies to the Fed for the next four years.”
Michael McKee, Bloomberg News
Biography
Age: 55; Dec. 13, 1953, in Augusta, Ga.
Education: B.A. in economics, 1975, Harvard University; Ph.D. in economics, 1979, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Experience: Feb. 1, 2006-present, chairman of the Federal Reserve; June 2005-Jan. 31, 2006, chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisers; 2002-2005, member, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; 1996-2002, professor and chairman of the Economics Department at Princeton University; 1985-2002, economics professor, Princeton University.
Family: Wife, Anna; two children.
Quote: “Economists like to argue that money belongs in the same class as the wheel and the inclined plane among ancient inventions of great social utility. Price stability allows that invention to work with minimal friction.” — Feb. 24, 2006, in his first speech as Fed chairman. The Associated Press
