10/28/2005

Can Ben Bernanke Do the Job?

Alan Greenspan's era is about to come to an end. Even though he may no longer be the Fed chairman, it is believed that if and when Ben Bernanke is confirmed that he will continue with similar policies as Greenspan. As this article states, Bernanke will be entering at a difficult time due to the rise in inflation. With his academic knowledge, he appears to be capable of the tasks they lie before him. For the most part, Bernanke has tremendous support from both sides. However, the one concern that has surfaced is his lack of real world experience in the stock market (he has never worked on Wall Street). My question is, how does one successfully fill the shoes of Alan Greenspan? And in the process of doing so, will our economy feel any negative effects?

1 comment:

Dr. Tufte said...

No one has ever claimed that experience on Wall Street is essential for this job.

I think what's happened is that you've fallen for someone who has been unable to find a flaw in Bernanke's impeccable resume ... so they went out and invented a new "requirement". Bernanke's career path is not very different from a large chunk of the Federal Reserve's 12 bank presidents.