Nominations of Ben S. Bernanke to be a Member and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

NOMINATIONS OF BEN S. BERNANKE TO BE A MEMBER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM -- (Senate - January 31, 2006)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Mr. President. I rise in strong support of the nomination of Mr. Bernanke to become Chairman of the Federal Reserve. First, I would be remiss if I didn't say a few words of congratulations to Alan Greenspan, who has truly been a giant in the field. He will be missed. He hovered over our economy similar to a caring guardian and has done an incredibly fine job. Every American of every political stripe should be grateful that Alan Greenspan served so well and so long. I called him yesterday to wish him well. He will do just fine. He is 79 and he is entitled to retire. I, for one, with no aspersions on Mr. Bernanke, wish he would have even stayed a little longer.

I think Mr. Bernanke is extremely well qualified for the job for a number of reasons. That is why I strongly support his nomination. He is erudite, he is smart, and he is one of those rare people who has made monetary policy his life's work. Many of us would not choose to do that, but he did and he has done it very well.

Second, Mr. Bernanke has assured us that he will follow the policies of Chairman Greenspan. That bespeaks well of his wisdom because Chairman Greenspan did such a superb job managing monetary policy. Anybody who says that starts with a leg up.

Third, he is not an ideologue. He is a solid, thoughtful person.

He does not go to the extreme. He does not have a narrow theory that governs the way economic policy should be made. He assured us, despite some rumors to the contrary, for instance, that he would not follow a mechanistic, formulaic monetary policy. That is very important because our economy is so complicated and there are so many international considerations that you cannot be mechanistic in this changing new world, and he is not.

He is also not an ideologue in terms of general economic policy. He is not one of these people who advocate tax cuts above all, even if it plunges us into greater deficits. He is a thoughtful, moderate man. He is the right choice for the job.

Senator Graham and I have been very concerned about the balance of trade with China and them pegging their currency at a low rate. He showed sympathy--in fact, greater sympathy than many--when we talked about that with him.

There are great challenges for Chairman Bernanke. There is the internationalization of the economy. That affects monetary policy because, as I said, there are loopbacks. What happens with the yen and the yuan and the Euro affects the dollar in ways that did not occur before when so little of our economy was based on international trade.

He has to deal with another problem in our society--the agglomeration of wealth to the top. Our society cannot continue with the top 10 percent that glomerates most of the wealth. I hope he will speak out on issues beyond monetary policy because we don't have any respected voices who do that without a partisan edge, other than the Chairman of the Fed.

I make one final point. Contrast the nomination of Dr. Bernanke and Judge Alito. Dr. Bernanke is a moderate. There was consultation, and he is getting every Democratic vote. Judge Alito was a partisan nomination. There was no consultation. He is regarded by many of us on key issues at the extreme, and we had a divided vote. I hope and pray that in the future, the President will follow the nomination process more like he did with Dr. Bernanke, a unifying choice, rather than like Judge Alito, a partisan choice.

I yield the floor.

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