President Barack Obama plans to nominate Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for a second term, according to a report by Associated Press. The announcement is likely to come on Tuesday while Obama is on break from a vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
According to the report, the information was obtained from an administration official who remained anonymous since the nomination is not public yet. Some of Obama’s remarks from a prepared statement related to the nomination were also obtained by AP and read as follows:
“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.”
Though Ben Bernanke has received a relatively high level of approval from economists around the country, plenty of speculation has existed on Wall Street whether the Fed Chairman would receive a second term after battling through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Bernanke, who is a bit of a historian and is very well versed on the aspects of the Great Depression, took a very aggressive stance on swaying the economy from such a fate. Interest rates have sat at record low levels for a good portion of his first term and the money printing presses have been going full blast.
This is coupled with the $300 billion the Fed has purchased in U.S. Treasuries to fund the many stimulus packages. Not to mention the other programs that had the Fed buy billion in bad mortgage backed assets in order to help the banks clean up their balance sheets.
Some members of Congress have concerns that Bernanke has been too aggressive and the long-term effects on the dollar, along with inflationary pressures could become dangerous.
However, while the long term impact of Bernanke’s policies are yet to be seen, the Fed Chairman did reach his main goal during the financial crisis; avoid a meltdown of the financial markets and stave of deflation, which was the main killer in the Great Depression.
Ben Bernanke, 55, began is first term February 1, 2006 after being appointed by President George W. Bush. He replaced Alan Greenspan, who has served the Federal Reserve for 19 years.
