Kudlow likes these guys. You?
Another factor that could help generate a calmer, less interest-rate-tinkering Fed, is Ben Bernanke. He's the chairman of the Princeton economics department, and according to media speculation he's a shoo-in for one of the two open seats on the Fed board. Bernanke favors an inflation target rule, and this would be a promising reform for the central bank. The forward-looking financial and commodity-price indicators would make even better targets, but an inflation rule would still be an improvement over the Greenspan standard: acting on whatever he's thinking as he steps out of the bathtub in the morning.
Another name surfacing for an empty Fed seat is Robert McTeer, president of the Dallas Fed. Hallelujah! For many years, on the air and in print, I've been pushing McTeer for Fed chairman. While it would be better to hear his name discussed as the lead candidate to replace Greenspan when he retires, a Fed seat might bring
McTeer closer to the throne. He's a technological-gales-of-creative-destruction follower of Joseph Schumpeter, the legendary economist and critic of Marx and Keynes. He looks at real-time market prices and monetary trends, not lagging indicators. He opposes speed limits to growth. In short, he's just what the Fed needs.
nationalreview.com |
