Caption: The abandoned building is the Fisher Body Plant. Ben Bernanke's mistakes as head of the Federal Reserve are sure to create more of these. Image credit: Jalopnik
Over at Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith reports that Ben Bernanke's re-nomination as chairman of the Federal Reserve may not be going so smoothly:
The Administration put on a full court press this weekend to shore up Bernanke’s confirmation vote, which was looking increasingly doubtful as of Friday. Over the weekend, Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate said they were confident that Bernanke would be confirmed. The media took up the call, with stories appearing in virtually every MSM outlet blaring that Bernanke was in.
But how seriously should we take this declaration of victory? Contrary to the efforts to present the confirmation vote as sealed, it is not in the bag[.]
Tell Senate “No” on Bernanke Cloture
I've written about Bernanke before, and I haven't been complimentary. Even Paul Krugman, one of Bernanke's colleagues at Princeton, has started to criticize Bernanke's performance. Little wonder. He wrote this about the nomination of Bernanke today in his blog:
Nor is it necessarily the case, as Sumner suggests, that the Obama administration chose Bernanke because it favors the policies it believes he will follow. Again, it’s not that simple: administration’s choose Fed chairs to appease markets, or to avoid a fight with the other party, or because they think it will look good on TV.
Issues Versus People
Hardly a ringing endorsement.
Steven Colbert summarized this re-nomination as well as anyone, I think:
Who better to solve the problem then the person who helped create the problem?... If you are cursed by a witch, you have to get the original witch to take the curse off you.
Quote Of The Day (Dec. 9, 2009)
I sent my two Senators a short e-mail asking them to refuse to confirm Bernanke. I think that failure, particularly failure on this scale, should not be rewarded.
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