The financial advisory industry hopes that a second term with Ben Bernanke at the helm of the Federal Reserve will provide much-needed stability and allow other parts of the government to concentrate on regulatory reform.
             “Our hope is that this takes away elements of uncertainty which will allow key players on the hill to focus on some true regulatory reform, which is what I think is really top of mind for most in this industry,” said Dale Brown, chief executive officer of the Financial Services Institute, an Atlanta-based trade group representing independent broker-dealers and independent advisors.
             “I think you’ll probably find a pretty wide array of opinions assessing the job that Chairman Bernanke has done amongst independent broker-dealers and independent financial advisors,” Brown admits. Nonetheless, he points out, “one of the key players being around for another four years will help us move in the direction of what we’d like to see happen.”
            President Obama took a break from his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday morning to announce his formal nomination of Chairman Bernanke to serve a second term, citing his commitment to restore a “stable” financial environment.
            “The bottom line is it makes an awful lot of sense,” says Diahann Lassus, national chair of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, which represents fee-only financial planners. “Because the last thing in the world you want to do is change leaders in the middle of what we’re still going through,” she says. “It really is going to be an interesting period. I’d like to see the interest rates stay low, let the economy continue to grow gradually as it is now. What I hope he doesn’t do is start tightening too quickly. If he starts increasing interest rates or absorbing dollars, reducing the money supply, that could really take us backwards.”
            Bernanke, a Republican, was first nominated to take the reins at the Fed nearly four years ago by President George W. Bush, following Alan Greenspan’s 18-year tenure. Bernanke is a reputed expert on the causes of the Great Depression, knowledge that has earned him widespread confidence within Congress as the best person to steer the country through the current financial crisis. The Democratic-controlled Congress must still confirm his nomination.