Bernanke - What to Expect? Insight on Confirmation & Views

[wasteofo2]

Anyone got any particularly notable opinions or factoids about this guy? I've heard such random things about him, and there's not a horrible lot of digging up facts, since it looks like he'll be confirmed without any hitch.

I've heard that he will essentially be Greenspan without the cool personality traits that Greenspan has, kind of like how Taft was billed in 1908.

Then I've heard that he's going to preform his own little glasnost on the Fed, make it more open, set all these marks, have everything planned out in advance, set formulas for when to do certain things and stick to those formulas, scale back the power of the fed, stay out of non-fed related issues. All these things are pretty much the opposite of what Greenspan did.

So I've got no idea what to think. He doesn't seem like a madman or anything, but then, there's hardly been anyone challenging him on that, so maybe he is. I have no idea.

Anyone got some insight?

 

[Polly]

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Media/PR102605.html" says his appointment:

...confirms that what the markets really want is a man who will continue Greenspan's easy money policies. “They got what they want,” says Wiggin. “What we need to be looking for now is what neither the markets nor the Bush White House expects - a rapid weakening of the U.S. dollar.”
...On Monday, although stocks did rally on the announcement, bonds and the dollar fell, demonstrating the concern that Bernanke will be more involved with encouraging economic growth through lower interest rates, instead of putting his full attention toward fighting inflation.
... “What they have in Bernanke is advocate of inflation targets. In other words, a managed decline in the value of the dollar...”

Sounds quite plausible to me.

 

[wasteofo2]

"Bernanke will be more involved with encouraging economic growth through lower interest rates, instead of putting his full attention toward fighting inflation.
... “What they have in Bernanke is advocate of inflation targets. In other words, a managed decline in the value of the dollar...”"

What's up with the person who wrote this article? Are they against the expansion of the U.S. economy? They're writing about inflation as though inflation is across the board a horrible thing, and we should have zero inflation.

Inflation is important for a healthy economy; this person doesn't seem to understand or believe that.