On Monday, President Bush nominated former Princeton University economist Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Ten years ago, Penn President Amy Gutmann nominated him for a different job -- chairman of Princeton's economics department.
Gutmann -- who was dean of the faculty at Princeton in 1996 when she appointed Bernanke department chair -- said she worked closely with him during his 17 years at Gutmann's former academic home.
"He did a superb job as chair" of Princeton's economics department, Gutmann said. He "brought to chairing the department some of the same characteristics that are being noticed as his qualifications for the job" as Fed chairman. She added that he is "terrific at building consensus in a smart, smart way."
Currently the chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Bernanke spent most of his professional career at Princeton. He left in 2002 for a job in national politics on the board at the Fed -- the agency that sets American monetary policy, including interest rates. If approved by the Senate, Bernanke could take office as early as February when Chairman Alan Greenspan resigns.
During his tenure at Princeton, Bernanke found time to work with Andrew Abel, a Penn professor with whom he authored a textbook hundreds of Penn students read each year.
Abel -- a professor of Economics and Finance at Penn -- said he first met Bernanke in graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s, where he was struck by how "judicious" and "open to other ideas" Bernanke was.
The two professors wrote Macroeconomics -- which was first published in 1992 -- together. The textbook is used in both undergraduate and graduate finance courses at Penn.
"I don't think we've ever had a tense moment," Abel said. "More than any other viable candidate [for Fed chairman], he is an expert on monetary policy."
While Bernanke will face several rounds of congressional confirmation hearings before his appointment becomes official, most Washington politicians expect he will get the job.
Bernanke "is the best qualified for the job," Gutmann said. "He has very big shoes to fill, and he's going to fill them."
While Abel said he does not expect Bernanke to suggest any "radical" policy changes, he did call Bernanke's personal style different from Greenspan's.
"Greenspan is legendary for circumlocution," Abel said. "I've seen [Bernanke] described as a straight talker, and he is."
Gutmann also praised Bernanke's emphasis on a non-secretive federal government.
He "believes in openness and transparency in governance," Gutmann said. "What President Bush has done is nominated perhaps the only person ... about whom there's a broad consensus that he is really a very, very strong successor to Alan Greenspan. ... We're going from strength to strength in the Federal Reserve."
