By Scott Lanman and Alison Vekshin
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Ben S. Bernanke has the backing of a majority of U.S. senators on the Banking Committee for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman.
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday that Bernanke has “done a pretty good job,” and that anger in Congress over the Fed’s role in the financial crisis is “misplaced.” Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, said Nov. 20 he will “absolutely” vote for Bernanke.
Criticism of the central bank has mounted in Congress since President Barack Obama nominated Bernanke in August, with many lawmakers blaming the Fed for lax supervision of banks and for taking part in taxpayer-funded bailouts of companies including Citigroup Inc. Some senators said those concerns won’t stop them from backing the former Princeton University economist.
“He’s been far from perfect,” Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in an interview yesterday. “He was not quick enough responding last year to many of these issues that we care about, particularly in housing. I want him to focus on jobs. But I think he’s generally done a decent job.”
Traders on Intrade, an online futures exchange, give Bernanke a 90 percent chance of Senate confirmation, up from 89 percent yesterday.
The Fed under Bernanke has slashed interest rates almost to zero and pumped more than $1 trillion into the financial system to battle the deepest recession since the 1930s. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has jumped 64 percent from its 2009 low on March 9 as the economy showed signs of revival.
Policy makers last month repeated their pledge to keep rates low for an “extended period” to bring down an unemployment rate at a 26-year high. A government report Dec. 4 is likely to show that companies reduced payrolls for a 23rd straight month, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Not much liquidity though on Intrade.
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