Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bernanke renomination in trouble?

Well, this is refreshing... it looks the Senate might finally push back against the Obama administration on something.
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said he was leaning against voting for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to have a second term at the helm of the central bank.

McCain said he would favor either former Fed chief Paul Volcker or John Taylor, an ex-Treasury official and now an economics professor at Stanford University, to replace Bernanke.

He joins at least three other Republicans who plan to oppose Bernanke’s renomination. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) have also said they plan to vote against Bernanke.
Merkley, who hails from our beautiful corner of the country, released a statement today explaining his decision.
Tomorrow, I will vote against confirming Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The reason, in short, is that as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke failed to recognize or remedy the factors that paved the road to this dark and difficult recession. Following our economic collapse, it is also apparent that he has not changed his overall approach to prioritizing Wall Street over American families.

My decision is based on my fundamental belief that our economy cannot recover if we do not put Main Street first.
Our thanks to Jeff Merkley for taking a strong and principled stand in favor of economic security for the American people. As Chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke has essentially been a yes man for the executives who run America's biggest banks. He has not forced Wall Street to be more accountable and responsible. Rather, he has been in the habit of signing an endless series of blank checks.

New leadership is sorely needed at the Fed.

President Obama made a mistake in renominating Ben Bernanke; unfortunately, it doesn't appear that he recognizes the negative ramifications of this decision. The Senate should force the President to reconsider by refusing its assent.

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