Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss?
President Obama is expected to decide by autumn whether to give Ben Bernanke a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman. Obama's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, has long been said to covet the job, while Bernanke has pushed back at the Obama administration on a couple of proposals, risking the president's displeasure. Bernanke says he doesn't agree with the need for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency; the Fed has got a handle on that, he says, and in fact it has been announcing new rules for lending and meeting with consumer-advocacy groups regularly. Bernanke is also taking a somewhat different tack from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Summers over whether the Fed should supervise "systemic risk" in the financial system.
But Bernanke's performance during the financial crisis has been widely praised, making a move to replace him politically risky. Last week he silenced some critics in Congress by laying out an "exit strategy" for the Fed after the financial crisis. And a new Bloomberg poll of global investors shows that 75 percent of them like what he's done. "He's on top of his game," says veteran Fed watcher David Jones. There's still a chance Obama might decide on another candidate who is perhaps closer to his thinking; the White House declined to comment. But overall, it's looking much likelier that Bernanke will be reappointed. In that case, Summers will have to wait another four years for a shot at his dream job.
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Michael Hirsh covers international affairs for NEWSWEEK reporting on a range of topics from Homeland Security to postwar Iraq. He co-authored the November 3, 2003 cover story, "Bush's $87 Billion Mess," about the Iraq reconstruction plan. The issue was one of three that won the 2004 National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Hirsh writes a column on Newsweek.com entitled "The World from Washington" focusing on foreign policy issues and serves as Washington Web Editor for Newsweek. He also edited NEWSWEEK's "Issues 2007" special issue, which explores all facets and issues of globalization.
Hirsh was the magazine's Foreign Editor from January 2001 to January 2002, and helped guide Newsweek's award-winning coverage of the September 11 attacks and the war on terror. Before that he was a Senior Editor/Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in the Washington bureau, writing about foreign affairs and international economics. Hirsh was also managing editor for the Newsweek International special issue "ISSUES 2001," the second in a series of three annual reviews of the global economy in the new century.
From September 1998 to December 1999, as Diplomatic Correspondent, Hirsh covered foreign policy, the State Department and the Treasury. He moved to the Washington D.C. bureau in May 1997, previously serving as a senior editor of Newsweek International, covering the same beat.
Prior to joining NEWSWEEK in October 1994 as a New York-based senior writer, Hirsh served as the Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief for Institutional Investor from 1992 to 1994. Previously, he was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Tokyo and a National Editor in New York.
Hirsh was co-winner of the 2002 Ed Cunningham Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's terror coverage and contributed to the team of Newsweek reporters who earned the magazine the prestigious 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence, also for the magazine's coverage of the war on terror. Hirsh also won a Deadline Club Award in 1997 for investigative reporting on his expose of the IRS's abusive practices, and was one of five finalists for a 1994 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his article, "China's Financial Revolutionaries." It profiled the new generation of mainland Chinese businessmen who are striving to build a capitalist financial system from scratch. Hirsh is the author of the nonfiction book "At War with Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2003) which explores America's foreign policy and its global role.
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