Bernanke Confirmed by Senate for Second Term

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was confirmed by the Senate for a second term by a 70 to 30 vote this evening. That's the most opposition a Fed chief has ever faced.

Some don't believe Bernanke deserved the job. I happen to believe he was the right person for the economic challenges we faced. How appropriate was it having an economist who was a scholar of the Great Depression as Fed Chief even as the economy faced Depression-like conditions. Sure, he could have recognized the housing crisis earlier. His assurances that the economy was sound in 2007 are surely the low point of his tenure. But hey, he's human.

I don't like to judge people by their mistakes, because everyone makes them. Instead, I like to judge people by how they respond to those mistakes and Bernanke has done as good a job as possible. He brought the Fed into uncharted territory and pioneered new ways of supporting the banking system and the economy.

Now, if he could only get those savings and cd rates up sometime this year.