The Power of the Fed

   The new chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers is Ben S. Bernanke, an outstanding choice.  He disagrees with Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, on the power that the Fed should have in setting the country's economic climate.  He would reduce the Fed's discretion, and its power, by requiring the Fed to be more transparent and more predictable by market participants.  Greenspan wants the Fed to "maintain flexibility" (read power), by not binding itself in advance to a predicable strategy.  Bernanke would be a great successor to Greenspan and get us out of the crazy game of hanging on every word of the Fed Chairman to "read the tea leaves" of the next Fed move.  In the middle of a market economy, the Fed currently simply has too much influence.