Greenspan's Successor

Who will fill the Fed chairman's shoes?
By Daniel Gross
Posted Friday, Oct. 14, 2005, at 1:00 PM PT

As Alan Greenspan's 18-year tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board enters its final months, speculation is growing as to whom President Bush will nominate to succeed him. The crowds at Intrade are betting on Ben Bernanke, current chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Asked to rank potential nominees, economists polled by the Wall Street Journal gave the highest marks to Bernanke and longtime Greenspan understudy Donald Kohn, a member of the Fed's Board of Governors (the Economist also believes Kohn is "the best choice"). Harvard eminence Martin Feldstein and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson followed close behind in the Journal poll. Glenn Hubbard, the former Bush economic adviser who is now the dean at Columbia University's business school, is also in the mix.