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Bernanke Advances to Senate Vote

By Joseph Lawler on 12.17.09 @ 12:08PM

The Senate Banking committee has approved the nomination of Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term in a 16-7 vote.

Voting against him were Republicans Shelby, Bennett, Bunning, Crapo, DeMint, Vitter, and Hutchison, and Democrat Jeff Merkley of Oregon. Merkel has cited Bernanke's apparent concern for Wall Street over Main Street as the basis for his opposition, which more or less squares with the Republicans' motivations. The Republicans, in general, are also more worried about inflation, but Bunning for one has criticized the Bernanke Fed for its actions in bailing out AIG and the lack of transparency in that transaction.

Bunning, notably, was the only Senator to go on the record as opposing Bernanke's confirmation in 2005, when he was approved with a voice vote. It's interesting to see that in the intervening period the Bush-nominated Bernanke has earned himself opposition that, while bipartisan, skews heavily Republican.

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JP| 12.17.09 @ 1:08PM

This nation will forever be in Bernecke's debt for his quick actions and reccomendations in the aftermath of the Sep-Oct 2009 meltdown.

However, he's shown that he has little regard for the institutional independence of the Fed. I suppose he considers himself just another policy wonk that is no different than the Treasury or Commerce Secretaries. He also is a big acolyte of Greenspan in that he totally believes in "managing interest rates" in order to maximize employment.

Bernecke's biggest fault is his absolute disregard in protecting our currency. The dollar continues to fall in relation to Gold (the best inflation indicator) as he and Geinter continue to inject easy money into our financial systems. And like Greenspan he will only find out too late when the asset bubble he has created rears its ugly head ( And yes, he promised he is much more skilled in detecting inflation than Greenspan. But Greenspan also promised Congress he knew what he was doing).

Of course he should be sent packing. Let him write his memiors and do the talk-show circuit.