Last week's events practically guaranteed that Ben Bernanke will be sitting in the chairman's office for many years to come.

If Bernanke were indeed to be reappointed as Fed chairman, it would mean that, in the depths of by far the worst U.S. economic recession in the post war period, one would be reappointing to the job the very person whose fingerprints are all over that recession.

President Obama's decision to reappoint Chairman Bernanke is the right one for markets. It may still be the wrong choice for Obama's policy agenda.

By opting for a hasty, major transformation of the U.S. economy after the financial crisis instead of a more measured approach, Congress and the president may be slowing the economic recovery.

Inaction onpresidential appointmentsreflects a combination of the overall White House contempt for Congress and its hostility to Daschle and Democrats more generally.

The duration of the current economic expansionand the prospect thatAlan Greenspanmight depart from the Fedare creating uncertainty about the future course of monetary policy.

How hands-on must the government be for us to regard a service as publicly provided?

Larry Lindsey, now George W. Bush's chief economic adviser, sees himself as helping to turn the presidential candidate's vision into nuts-and-bolts programs.