"Bernanke's the One"

"As this history suggests, it is more remarkable for a US president not to reappoint a Fed chairman named by the opposite party than to reappoint one who wishes it. Reagan’s failure to reappoint Volcker and Jimmy Carter’s failure to reappoint Arthur Burns are the main exceptions. The Fed chairmanship is the only position in the US government for which this is so: it is a mark of its unique status as a non- or not-very-partisan technocratic position of immense power and freedom of action – nearly a fourth branch of government, as David Wessel’s recent book In Fed We Trust puts it."
(By Brad DeLong)