Was this necessary?
The struggle to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve has turned into a soap opera. Bernanke, it is widely assumed, has told President Barack Obama that he doesn't want a third four-year term — or has been informed that he won't be reappointed. This has triggered a highly public campaign by partisans of the two leading contenders for the job: Lawrence Summers, ex-treasury secretary (in the Clinton years) and former Harvard president; and Janet Yellen, the Fed's present vice chairman. Both are economists.
Summers, say his fans in op-ed articles and anonymous quotes, is "brilliant" and an experienced crisis manager. (He helped defuse the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and, as a top Obama aide in 2009, dealt with the Great Recession.) Yellen's supporters counter that she was an early prophet of the housing crisis and is a consensus-builder and an articulate communicator. She also would be the first woman to head the Fed. Inevitably, each campaign questions the other candidate's qualifications. Summers is accused of arrogance; Yellen is seen as soft on inflation (a "dove" in Fedspeak).