Market likes decision to appoint Bush adviser as Greenspan's successor. But he will face challenges

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money senior writer
October 24, 2005: 3:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - President Bush on Monday nominated Ben Bernanke to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose term is set to expire at the end of January.

Bernanke, currently chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers and a former Fed governor, was widely considered one of the leading candidates for the job. [...]

"The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost," Bernanke said in remarks to the National Economists Club in Washington in November 2002.

"By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services," he said. [...] Holy moly -- These guys are REPUBLICANS? Read the excellent CNN money article at http://tinyurl.com/cot8o


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