Bernanke reign ends is first year

Ben Bernanke's first year as the Fed Chair ended as the FOMC held the federal funds rate at 5.25%. Greg Ip And Mark Whitehouse of the Wall Street Journal write

As he finishes his first year as Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke has dispelled early doubts about his ability to steer the world's largest economy. But his biggest challenge -- bringing the economy in for a soft landing -- lies ahead.

It looks like Bernanke is making the meetings more interesting too. Maybe that is why they are having more two day affairs.

Some of Mr. Bernanke's accomplishments are less visible. He has made Fed discussions more freewheeling and collegial, colleagues say. But he has fallen short of his goal of innovating Fed communications. He has wanted to set a public, numeric inflation target, make more-frequent and more-detailed forecasts and issue more descriptive, less formulaic post-meeting statements. But sensitive to colleagues less enthusiastic about such changes, he has subjected debate to an internal review. That review is expected to wrap up this fall.