Ben Bernanke will continue to serve as the president of the American central bank – the Federal Reserve – for another four years. The Senate confirmed the mandate of the former economics professor from Princeton University with a vote of 70 in favor and 30 against, despite facing the greatest opposition that a candidate for the governor of the central bank has encountered in the past three decades.
Senators accused him of failing to recognize and prevent the largest financial crisis and of overstepping his authority by participating in the bailout of Wall Street firms, including insurance giant AIG and Citigroup bank. Supporters acknowledged that Bernanke prevented a deeper recession by lowering the benchmark interest rate to nearly zero and injecting a trillion dollars into the economy. (www.hrt.hr)
