Obama to renominate Bernanke to lead Fed

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. -- President Obama will nominate Federal Reserve Board ChairmanBen Bernanke for a second four-year term today, according to Bill Burton, White House deputy press secretary.

Obama and Bernanke will appear together on Martha's Vineyard, where the president is vacationing, two senior administration officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about it before Obama's announcement at 9 a.m.

Bernanke was chosen by President George W. Bush to replace Alan Greenspan in 2006. Together with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, Bernanke helped craft a set of economic stimulus and financial regulation policies intended to help the U.S. weather the recession.

"As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I'm sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another," Obama plans to say, according to prepared remarks provided to USA TODAY by one of the officials.

The officials said Geithner, Summers and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel all recommended Bernanke's renomination, which requires Senate confirmation.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said that although he felt Bernanke was "too slow to act during the early stages of the foreclosure crisis … he ultimately demonstrated effective leadership, and his reappointment sends the right signal to the markets."

Bernanke, 55, a former Princeton University economics professor and department chairman, joined the Federal Reserve in 2002. He became chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers in 2005.