Main focus of Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bernanke remains chairman of the Federal Reserve

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, is to remain in office for another four years. In justifying his decision to renominate the 55-year-old economist, US President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised the "calm and wisdom" with which Bernanke handled the economic crisis. The European press comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the head of the Fed.

La Vanguardia - Spain

The liberal daily La Vanguardia praises the farsightedness of US President Barack Obama in nominating Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman: "Apart from the economic message it sends this reiteration of trust in Bernanke also has several political aspects some of which are important beyond the US borders. By choosing a Republican like Bernanke the Democrat Obama is reminding us that when necessary collective interests take precedence over party interests. This means that in difficult economic situations loyalty to the state has top priority. This is a lesson we can't afford to ignore." (26/08/2009)

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Corriere della Sera - Italy

US President Barack Obama's renomination of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve is aimed above all at ensuring stability, writes the daily Corriere della Sera: "Anyone surprised by Obama's decision to nominate Republican Ben Bernanke, the bearded Princeton professor whom George Bush transformed into a banker, to a second term has failed to understand the need for stability of an America that is still in the midst of the economic crisis and also the fact that the US president's offer to the academic is not exactly a cushy proposal. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers [bank] the chairman of the Federal Reserve has been sleeping not on a bed of roses but on a hard cot through half-sleepless nights in his office and the cross on which Congress and the senators … have nailed him. … The last thing Obama, exhausted by the conservatives' campaign against his healthcare reform, … needs is another confrontation with the opposition to replace a Republican Federal Reserve chairman with a [chairman] of the Democratic persuasion." (26/08/2009)

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De Standaard - Belgium

Despite the positive economic trend the dangers of the crisis have not receded, the daily De Standaard writes, noting that therefore it's not a good time to "change captains": "[US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke's detractors claim, not entirely without reason, that he is at least partially responsible for the errors of the financial sector. … But even his opponents must admit that when it came to the crunch he intervened swiftly and resolutely. The money started to flow and the worst was averted. … The most important thing now is to bridge the next phase out of the crisis with the same skill and resolution. … Bernanke stays on, and that's ok. What we have learned in the meantime is that it's not necessary to make a demi-god out of him as we did with his predecessor Alan Greenspan. The latter is now being decried as the man who allowed the creation of the bubble in the first place. We must not make a superhero of a deserving expert." (26/08/2009)

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Les Echos - France

The business paper Les Echos voices both praise and criticism for how the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, reacted to the economic crisis: "On Constitution Avenue in the Art Deco building that is home to the US central bank, one man knew what he had to do. In 2008 it was Ben Bernanke. Six years before the Lehman bankruptcy he had explained in a speech what was needed to avoid a new Great Depression. This former professor ... didn't hesitate to lower interest rates to 0%, inject over 1,000 billion dollars into American banks to save them from disaster and buy massive amounts of rotten securities and treasury bonds. Nevertheless Bernanke's first mandate still gives cause for concern. First of all he did nothing to counter the faint-hearted regulation system inherited from his predecessor - one of the causes of the crisis. And he understood far too late that subprime loans would cause the entire financial world to totter." (26/08/2009)

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