Midwestern opposition to Bernanke spanned political divide
Ben Bernanke won a second term as Fed chairman last week. In renomination terms the Senate vote was a squeaker, with 30 senators voting against. The next closest not-very-close vote was for Paul Volcker, who was reconfirmed as Fed chair in 1983 by a vote of 84 to 16.
Eight of the 28 Senators who represent NorthWestern Financial Review’s readership area voted against Bernanke: Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Pat Roberts (R-Kas.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).
Opposition spanned the political spectrum. Democrats Harkin and Franken said the Fed under Bernanke was lax in consumer protection; Feingold also opposed the Fed’s reluctance to have its actions reviewed. Republican Brownback criticized the Fed as too beholden to Washington and Wall Street. In an interesting regional twist, he proposed that Tom Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, would make an able alternative to Bernanke.
“Mr. Bernanke is a gentleman and has a powerful intellect, but we need a different perspective at the Fed,” Brownback said. Hoenig “is a practical Midwesterner from outside the Beltway who would bring a common sense view to the Fed and to our monetary policy,” he said.
