by Mark Silva and updated
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who presided over the federal government's handling of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, has won Senate confirmation for a second four-year term today.
Bernanke's second term had appeared assured until recent days, when several influential senators of both parties said they would oppose it.
The Fed chairman required a 60-vote super-majority of the Senate's members to overcome a filibuster, and he easily secured that this afternoon. The procedural hurdle was cleared with a 77-23 vote, and the Senate proceeded to a roll-call vote for confirmation. Bernanke won a second term on a 70-30 vote.
President Barack Obama welcomed the vote:
"As the nation continues to face the consequences of the worst recession in a generation, Ben Bernanke has provided wisdom and steady leadership in the midst of the financial and economic crisis,'' Obama said tonight. " While the worst of the storm has passed, its devastation remains and we have a lot of work to do to rebuild our economy.''
Critics of the chairman's policies and handling of the financial crisis that prompted a massive federal bailout of financial institutions maintain that he and other federal regulators missed the warning signs of the impending credit crisis that surfaced near the end of 2008.
"Bernanke fiddled while our markets burned," said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)
The chairman's allies maintain that he confronted the crisis with swift and commanding action - it was Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who warned congressional leaders and former President George W. Bush that failure to act would result in a complete collapse of the economy. Bernanke, a Princeton-trained economist, is a scholar of the Great Depression.
"He has kept a steady hand on the tiller in a perfect economic storm," said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)
The Dow Jones industrial average had plunged last week amid news of opposition to Bernanke's confirmation, then recovered as his prospects brightened.
Bernanke had angered the public and lawmakers alike with his advocacy of Wall Street bailouts -- particularly the $182 billion rescue of American International Group Inc.
Obama, who nominated his predecessor's Fed chairman for a second term, said in his State of the Union address this week that if the government had not acted catastrophe would have ensued.
"We all hated the bank bailout,'' Obama said. " I hated it -- I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.''
(Photo of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attending a meeting with Sen. Dick (D-Ill.) at the Capitol last week as leaders rallied votes for the chairman's confirmation for a second term by Mark Wilson / Getty Images).
Comments
Another Bushco criminal lives to see another day.
What a joke....
.
Posted by: former Republican | January 28, 2010 4:05 PM
If we had a Fed Chief who was not obsessed with inflation we'd have some movement on jobs and some growth in the economy. Bernanke is a failure.
Posted by: Tonya H | January 28, 2010 4:36 PM
The dimocrats raised the debt limit today by another $1.9 TRILLION. Come on sheeple, pull your heads out of your rear ends.
Posted by: BDD | January 28, 2010 4:50 PM
And the three men I admire most
The father, son, and the holy ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
Posted by: Manic Drummer | January 28, 2010 5:13 PM
HOORAY FOR MORE BERNANKE!
Posted by: Senator Exxon Corp. (R-TX) | January 28, 2010 6:04 PM
Well, i think after watching how Congress handled the economic meltdown over the last 18 months,
If Congress essentially said we can do this better than Ben Bernanke…I would get very worried."
Posted by: joe | January 28, 2010 6:13 PM
We need to make an effort to export more cheap plastic stuff like China does. We can start with Glenn Beck.
Posted by: Paula F | January 28, 2010 6:34 PM
...wow, and Bernanke still thinks the Fed. Res. should be allowed to hide their records and keep secrets. Those who voted to give Bernanke a second term condone secrecy and say "kiss off" to Sunshine laws. National security. My hat. Who voted to keep him? List please. Some banks are too big to fail. And, I guess now, some people can not be replaced and are too big to fail. BS. I disagree. If anyone ever makes threats about an organization's outcome, or speaks in a fear-mongering way based on their potential absence, they should be removed right away. A new broom often sweeps clean. A perceived total power thing hurts moral and can give way to corruption--to an actual takeover of power--and/or to more failure. The gov'ts rule in banking and finance seems to be 'always reward incompetence'. Bad for us. Good for Geithner, Bernanke and Wall Street. Geith. and Bern. must be the only two people in America to have majored in macro econ--or another business major--and to have a few years of experience behind them. Failing banks and failing high level finance people are being bailed out by our gov't. However, hard working citizens dotting all the i's and crossing all their t's--and paying their taxes on time--get nothing from the same gov't. Forget that--until this fall. Here's to a better quarter.
Posted by: Vivian | January 28, 2010 7:28 PM
Former,
If Bernanke is "Another Bushco criminal", why did Messiah reappoint him? Also, why did BO make the former chairman of the NY Fed, who was neck deep in the AIG bailout, his Sec of Treasury?
Did it ever occur to you that BO is just all "tough talk" when it comes to Wall Street?
Posted by: Terry | January 28, 2010 7:42 PM
People should not be allowed to vote on the Fed. Reserve Chairman post unless they have at least one degreee in economics. Politicians get swayed by buffoons like you all on this post who have no clue about the intricacies of financial markets and economics. The public's anger at the financial crisis is being taken out on the person who helped clean the mess....let's just shoot the messenger!!!
If it weren't for Bernanke, most of us would probably be living in cardboard boxes at this point.
Posted by: BorninChicago | January 28, 2010 9:34 PM
"We need to make an effort to export more cheap plastic stuff like China does. We can start with Glenn Beck.
Posted by: Paula F
"
Funny! Except China never buys anything from America. The only hot item it China is Colgate. Not sure what's in that stuff. . .I thought Crest was the same thing- white, creamy. . .
Posted by: HmongRodneyKing | January 28, 2010 10:15 PM
Why do I have a queasy feeling?
Posted by: ornery | January 29, 2010 12:42 AM
While the right is crying doom and gloom creating fear for Americans....how about a story on Blair admitting that the threat from Saddam was "over stated". The same as now, republican over state for political gain. How American!
Posted by: bill r. | January 29, 2010 8:48 AM
WOW!! THE REAL DETAINEE SCANDAL. HOW'S THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING WORKING FOR YA. AL QAEDA LOVES IT!!!!!
*
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/29/the_real_detainee_scandal.html
*
. . . the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).
The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama's own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration's new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.
Perhaps you hadn't heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council.
Where was it during the Abdulmutallab case? Not available, admitted National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, because it had only been conceived for use abroad. Had not one person in this vast administration of highly nuanced sophisticates considered the possibility of a terror attack on American soil?
It gets worse. Blair later had to explain that the HIG was not deployed because it does not yet exist. After a year! I suppose this administration was so busy deploying scores of the country's best lawyerly minds on finding the most rapid way to release Gitmo miscreants that it could not be bothered to establish a single operational HIG team to interrogate at-large miscreants with actionable intelligence that might save American lives.
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | January 29, 2010 10:01 AM
Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze'
Speaker's trips 'are more about partying than anything else'
My fellow Democrats, this is the wastful spending we have to stop. People are out of work and our respresentatives are wasting tax dollars.
Posted by: Richard Owens | January 29, 2010 1:26 PM
BillyR,
Overstating? Reminds of 47 million Americans being uninsured
Posted by: Terry | January 29, 2010 9:03 PM
Bernanke's confirmation has severely eroded public confidence in the Federal Reserve.
Posted by: libhomo | January 30, 2010 9:25 PM
Okay the loony left got their man in that is all fine and well. But I have to agree with most economic professionals that believe the stock market along with the economy is headed for another downturn this summer. And mark my words good old Ben and team Obama along with the liberals in Congress will blame Bush. But in the real world we know the persons who are really at fault. People keep saying that these recession is the worst since the Great Depression. To those people I say either you are too young or too dense to remember the 70s and the misery index and double-digit inflation. You cannot keep printing money like it was party invitations and not have the bill come due.
Posted by: Crooks_In_DC | January 31, 2010 11:29 AM