Bush Expected to Name Bernanke as Next Fed Chairman, People Say
2005-10-24 11:40 (New York)
By Brendan Murray and William Roberts
Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush is expected
to name White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke later today to
succeed Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman, people
familiar with the matter said.
Bernanke is chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers
and a former Fed governor. He canceled meetings scheduled today
in New York to remain in Washington. An announcement is set for 1
p.m. Washington time today, people said.
``We'll have an announcement soon,'' Bush said after meeting
with members of his Cabinet at the White House.
Spokesmen for the White House and the CEA declined to
comment on the president's choice.
Greenspan's non-renewable term ends Jan. 31 and the
nomination of his successor is subject to Senate confirmation.
Greenspan, 79, Fed chairman since 1987, maneuvered the economy
through two stock-market collapses, in 1987 and 2000, and two
recessions in 1990-91 and in 2001. The expansion in between was
the longest in U.S. history.
In his current job, Bernanke, 51, serves as the president's
chief economic adviser, a role Greenspan held two decades
earlier. Bernanke, a former Princeton economist, took on the CEA
chairmanship last June after spending almost three years as a
Federal Reserve governor.
Wall Street has been betting on Bush naming Bernanke to the
Fed chairmanship. In a survey of investors last month, he ranked
No. 1 on the list of likely candidates, getting 38 percent of 104
votes. The second-closest candidate in the poll by Stone &
McCarthy Research Associates, a Skillman, New Jersey, economics
firm, was Harvard professor Martin Feldstein, who got 31 percent.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby said his
panel would try to hold hearings and a vote on a Fed nomination
before the end of the year.
``This is one of the most important appointments that the
president of the United States will make, probably, in this
term,'' Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said in an interview last
week.
--With reporting by Michael McKee in New York and Roger Runningen
in Washington. Editor: Sobczyk
Story illustration: To graph the change in the U.S. budget
deficit, click {FDEBTY <Index> GP <GO>}. For U.S. gross domestic
product, see {GDP CQOQ <Index> GP <GO>}. To read Bernanke's
speeches at CEA, see:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/speeches.html.
For information on other potential Greenspan successors, see
{NXTW NSN INRNEM0UQVI9 <GO>} for an article on Federal Reserve
Governor Donald Kohn and {NXTW NSN IO5ZYG0D9L35 <GO>} for an
article on Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein.
