Bernanke's PR Campaign Strips Fed Mystique

(NEWSER) - Ben Bernanke patted himself on the back today for helping to save the world from a complete economic meltdown, MarketWatch reports. Facing public outrage and the prospect of President Obama dumping him in 6 months, the Fed chair said at a retreat in Wyoming that the world’s central banks “responded with speed and force" to "a rapidly deteriorating and dangerous situation." More»

(NEWSER) - Ben Bernanke can expect a standing ovation from economists at a Fed retreat in Jackson Hole today—for the financial establishment, the Fed chairman is a superhero, hailed for his aggressive, unprecedented actions to stem the worst crisis in generations. Yet on Capitol Hill he's far less popular, and the White House still isn't showing its cards about a second term. For the New York Times, Bernanke is fighting two battles: one economic, one political. More»

(NEWSER) - The Federal Reserve is ripe for some major changes everywhere but at the top, Steven Pearlstein writes for the Washington Post. It's finally clear that the job "involves a lot more than adjusting interest rates," and we've seen the drain that happened when we "left the previous chairman in the job so long that it created a cult of personality." To fix that, the possibility of reappointment should be removed for the Fed chairman—whose term should be extended to 6 years—to ensure independence from the White House and Wall Street. More»

Low-key chair deserves chance to stay on, clean up: Ignatius

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has a huge decision coming up this summer: whether to reappoint Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed or turn to obvious challenger Lawrence Summers. If he’s smart, he’ll stick with the soft-spoken incumbent, writes David Ignatius of the Washington Post. “He has been a veritable tiger,” he writes. “The Bernanke Fed is so much more powerful than its predecessors that it’s almost a different institution.” More»

Fed can prevent deflation, but problems lurk down the line

(NEWSER) - With interest rates functionally zero, Ben Bernanke is soon going to have to resort to the central banker's ultimate weapon: printing cash and showering Americans with money. There's no question that the "helicopter drop" will prevent the dreaded spiral of deflation, writes Martin Wolf in the Financial Times. But the longer-term consequences aren't pretty: "unexpectedly high inflation, though probably many years hence." More»