Monday, October 24, 2005

Bernanke In as Fed chief

It looks like Bush has picked a successor to Greenspan. He also happens to be Bush's economic adviser and a former member of the Board of Governors. He also seems pretty qualified for the job unlike Harriet Myers. This is from the White House site:

Before becoming a member of the Board, Dr. Bernanke was the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Economics Department at Princeton University (1996-2002). Dr. Bernanke had served as a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton since 1985.

He seems to have a really good economics background and know what he is talking about. He also wrote three textbooks. This is good news:

Bernanke, 51, is a top monetary economist who has long advocated setting formal targets for inflation to help guide monetary policy, a position Greenspan has long opposed.

Maybe the FED will have a lot more transparency when it comes to monetary policy. No more "what inning is it in the rate tightening cycle?" arguments. Let's hope Bernanke will give us a decent gauge on how much they will be raising the rates so the market won't freak out. It's tough to gauge things when economists have such wide opinions when it comes to what level they are willing on raising rates to. I hope he takes some of the uncertainty out of FED moves.

No comments: