NEW Fed Chair?

[lastsamurai]

Does anybody know anything about Ben Bernanke other than he is a college professor?

[cdxx]

he's worked on the fed's board for over three years, and then was brought over to the president's economic council in june. (you can find this info anywhere). he is a good pick unless W managed to brainwash him in the last 3 months.

his policies are fairly tight, he is familiar and by all indications supportive of Greenspan's policies. the main argument against him are his comments that suggest he could try to keep the value of dollar constant by fighting both inflation and deflation by tightening the supply or printing more money on the old printing press. in the past, greenspan was known for sometimes staying the course of his policies rather than reverting back to rate hikes (or back to cuts), thus more effectively guiding the economy rather than solely fighting inflation/deflation.

[adios]

Today's WSJ has a lot of coverage about this appointment. Perhaps I'm hijacking the thread here but isn't "inflation targeting" much to do about nothing in the sense that it's more or less what Greenie has done throughout his tenure. I only see the difference between Bernanke and Greenspan as possibly the range of inflation being "targeted." Greenie seems to have a target between 0% and 3% while Bernanke's range may be narrower. To use a poker metaphor, it's like comparing two players with one player having a wider range of hands they'll attack the blinds with in late position but both players believe it's a good strategy. I think the main challenge for Bernanke is anticipating economic conditions and changes in the economy and will he do this as well as Greenie.

[cdxx]

very interesting analogy.

i view their strategies as purely monetary (Bernanke) vs. actually steering the economy (Greenspan). think of the fed's strategy from 1995 until 2000. greenspan kept the rates relatively high, but he essentially made the economy grow at a measured rate, rather than booming off the charts. noone knows what would have happened, but many fear the 2000-2003 recession would have been a lot worse. basically, a much bigger bubble would have burst. some of this had to do with monetary policy, but a lot more to do with actual economic growth.

[AngryCola]