How Bernanke the Scholar Became Fed Iconoclast
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Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- When President George W. Bush wasconsidering candidates to be chairman of the Federal Reserve inthe autumn of 2005, the rap on Ben Bernanke, a brillianteconomist, was that he had never faced a crisis, might be toosoft for a challenge and wasn’t politically astute.
As he prepares to conclude his eight-year tenure as centralbank chief at the end of the month, Bernanke is one of the mostsignificant figures in contemporary U.S. government. Few haverisen more boldly to confront a crisis, his political talentswere underestimated, and the 60-year-old scholar of the GreatDepression is about as soft as cast iron.