Fed Chair Bernanke to Hold Town Hall on Economy

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on July 09

We are a long way from the days of Alan Greenspan’s finely-tuned obfuscations. Back when he was head of the Federal Reserve, Greenspan was famous for talking about the economy in nearly impenetrable language; he had a legendary ability to take a straightforward question and answer in a way that none but the most sophisticated market watcher could understand — and even they often had trouble.

But no more. Since taking over as chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke has championed a more plain-speaking, transparent approach. Now, he’s ramping it up. In a move that may have been inevitable in the Age of Obama, the Fed has announced — you got it — that Bernanke will participate in a town hall meeting in Kansas City in late July.

Here's the announcement from the Fed:

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will participate in an hour-long town hall-type meeting with local citizens at 7 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. CDT) on Sunday, July 26 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 1 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, Mo. The event will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

The announcement comes as Washington is rife with speculation over what the future holds for Bernanke -- will Obama name him to another term when the current one is up in January, or not?

It's far from a simple question. For starters, there are plenty of questions about the job he's done. Many laud him for the aggressive role the Fed played in stabilizing the financial system, and believe the country might be in an even more serious crisis if he hadn't been inventive and stepped up the Fed's role.

But critics in Congress and elsewhere are raising increasing questions about whether Bernanke has gone too far. They criticize the active role Bernanke took in encouraging bank takeovers, and worry that he's flooded the system with far too much money, with dire consequenses coming for inflation and the dollar.

At the same time, it's also widely believed that Larry Summers, the president's top economic advisor, would like the job. No one knows yet whether Obama is likely to move in that direction or not. But if he were so inclined, the politics of dumping Bernanke for Summers could be very tricky depending on where the economy stands come January.

All in all, not a bad time for Bernanke to buff up the public image. Besides, I bet they're just dying to ask about quantititive easing out there in the "Show-Me" state...