[TigerLikesRooster]

But Mr McCain is also likely to lean heavily on some big hitters, such as Phil Gramm, the former Texas senator and likely Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration

If I remember correctly, Phil Gramm was a big advocate for open border policy, and tangled up with Enron scandal.

On another note, I don't think it is bad for Bernanke to step aside sooner than later. I think nobody can fundamentally reverse the current situation. Why stay around and become a convenient scapegoat?

[BGHater]

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/

Not good.

[Perdogg]

His wife got tangled in the Eron not Gramm himself.

This is an interesting tribute to him in National Review.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-nadler090501.shtml

[kinoxi]

Greenspan dropped the load in his lap. He hasn’t done bad at all. Especially when you consider Greenspan actively campaigning against him to help secure his own personal legacy.

[ari-freedom]

bernanke was a pretty bad pick. Greenspan also made mistakes but times were good when he acted like a supply sider.

We need Steve Forbes...I’m not saying he should actually run the system but he would know who to put up there.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[what's up]

If Bernanke can keep us out of recession, I'd say he's doing an excellent job.

Mr Bernanke has come in for some stinging criticism in the past few months

Of course. It's an election year. The Dems and MSM have succeeded in steering the news from Iraq to the economy. No surprise that one of their targets will be Bernanke for some months to come.

[Always Right]

I still think Bernanke will help steer the US economy from falling into a recession. I think he has been a little slow to cut and put himself in a situation where he had to make a large emergency cut. I am not sure why the author was so surprised about the 3/4 point cut. Ben managed to save the US markets from making one of the largest drops in history which would have resulted in billions of dollars lost by investors. Foreign markets had fallen heavily the past two days and had Ben not cut, our market would have fallen 1000 points or more that day.

Ben has been much maligned, but in several months when the markets are back at record levels and the economy is still growing, Ben will be the toast of the town.

[familyop]

What would a new Fed chairman do—declare “inflation” to be the problem and raise the rate? Yeah, there’s inflation. But it’s not caused by a US labor shortage this time. ...gonna bomb the Saudis and take their oil facilities?

[dr huer]

We have had a great party with Greenspan’s easy money. Now comes the hangover. Let us just cut back on the intoxicants with just the miraculous precision required. Ask Jeeves? Sorry, there is no such possibility. Once steady inflation rate is established everybody adjusts to it and its enjoyable effects disappear. To get them back entices the central bankers to accelerate the rate of money creation. Then you get Germany 1920 to 1923. Read “Dying of Money”, Jens Parsson, Wellspring Press Inc. 1974

[Travis McGee]

On another note, I don't think it is bad for Bernanke to step aside sooner than later. I think nobody can fundamentally reverse the current situation. Why stay around and become a convenient scapegoat?

Doesn't mean much, like changing navigators on the Titanic after hitting the berg. The damage under the waterline has been done.

[Biblebelter]

Gramm more than any Republican Senator was in charge of setting up the Senate impeachment proceedings for the criminal known as William Jefferson Clinton. He did a lousy job and effectively sold the House Managers down the river.

[AndyJackson]

It is unlikely that Mr Bernanke - more diffident, much less well politically connected than Mr Greenspan - will be able to move quite as smoothly.

Huh? This is wrong. Greenspan stuffed the coffers of foreign banks with all the printed international reserve currency that they would hold. Just because the foreign banks finally realized that the stuff wasn't worth the computer memory required to store the numbers on Bernanke's watch does not mean that Greenspan had a magic touch.

He just had the smarts to retire when it was becoming obvious that the jig was about to be up.

The only thing we learn about Bernanke was that he was a big enough fool that he accepted an undoable job.