Senate Confirms Bernanke as Fed Chief

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed White House adviser Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, clearing him on Alan Greenspan’s last day in office to take over America’s most powerful economic post.

The Senate approved the former Fed governor on a voice vote.

He enjoyed strong support from both Republicans and Democrats, however Sen. Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican, spoke in opposition to the nomination, complaining that Bernanke would too closely follow Greenspan’s policies.

Bernanke, chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers since June last year, will be sworn in on Wednesday for a renewable four-year term atop the U.S. central bank, along with a 14-year term on the Fed’s board.

The 52-year-old Bernanke, who was on the Fed’s Washington-based board for nearly three years before he moved to the White House, is a leading monetary economist and a vocal advocate of increased central bank openness.

He has long argued the Fed should adopt a numerical inflation target as a policy guide — a position that put him at odds with the departing Greenspan, who believes such guideposts can be an unhelpful policy straitjacket.

At a Senate hearing in November, Bernanke made clear he still believed an inflation target could enhance interest-rate policy by giving the public and financial markets a better sense of where the central bank wants to steer the economy.

However, the collegial Bernanke, who chaired the Princeton University economics department before coming to Washington, said he would not move ahead without forging a consensus from the diverse views Fed officials hold on the issue.

He also pledged to keep faith with the Greenspan era and the iconic Greenspan’s flexible approach to Fed policy. "I will make continuity with the policies and policy strategies of the Greenspan Fed a top priority," Bernanke said at the hearing.

"Monetary policy is most effective when it is as coherent, consistent, and predictable as possible, while at all times leaving full scope for flexibility and the use of judgment as conditions may require," he said.