Ben Bernanke nominated to succeed Alan Greenspan

Washington: Investors, economists and members of Congress have welcomed President Bush's selection of Ben Bernanke to head the Federal Reserve on Monday.

Stocks rallied as word of Bush's choice spread on Wall Street. Bernanke, a widely respected economist who serves as Bush's chief economic adviser, said his first priority would be to "maintain continuity with the policies" established during Greenspan's eighteen years as the head of the nation's banking and monetary system.

Bernanke, 51, is expected to have little trouble winning Senate confirmation before Greenspan's planned retirement on Jan. 31.

After a lifetime of stellar academic work, most recently as chairman of the economics department at Princeton University, Bernanke was a member of the Fed's Board of Governors from August 2002 until June, when he became president of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

He graduated with highest honors from Harvard University in 1975 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology four years later. He made his reputation as a professor at Princeton, specializing in the analysis and history of monetary policy. His study of the Great Depression concluded that its severity was caused not by financial markets but by the Fed's errant monetary policy.

He's also the co-author of a popular college textbook titled ``Macroeconomics,' which is in its fourth edition. Adam Posen, who co-authored a 1999 book on inflation with Bernanke, called him one of the top economists of his generation.