Im hoping every politician up for election/ or not is replaced by anyone that has some integrity; aint gonna happen though…

I’m not sure if you mean to imply that it’s the Democrats’ fault for the understaffing of the CEA. To spin it the other way, the President is showing that he’s more interested in keeping democratic nominees off the SEC and thereby protecting his Wall St. buddies than in getting the advice he needs to deal with a tanking economy.

The truth is that both parties (the Pres. and the Senate) are being hard-nosed about this. After all, if the president really wanted his economic advisors, he just has to compromise on th SEC, right? Why shouldn’t the democrats press that advantage?

I agree that Ferguson was not the person to replace Greenspan, but I do wonder about the possibility of him not wanting to be a babysitter for Warsh and the other kids there. That said, it was probably the smartest thing for him to walk away from the position he had.

I really want to start a Warsh Watch Blog, because he seems totally un-qualified to be in the position that Bush gave him. I did a Google today and he is nowhere in the news, and as I recall, he has never written a thing of value, but Im sure in this day and age, someone will help him with that and get his resume looking better (soon) and add more meat, more filler and thus offer hope that he plays some part in reality.

I imagine he will be giving some speeches to high school kids that are pondering whether or not to take AP History. I also anticipate that he will be under the wing of someone for many years and God willing removed by the next president for cause.

He should resign this afternoon actually and go play tennis on his own dime, as taxpayers are all ready on the hook for too many abusive boondoggles!

I know Ferguson distantly. He and I overlapped at McKinsey. My impression is that he believed he had a shot at being the Fed chair. Even though he is a capable enough individual, I don’t think that had a snowball’s chance in hell of ever happening. His academic credentials were no where near as good as Bernanke’s, and he hadn’t held an important role in the banking industry to give him the street cred to compensate.

And people who’ve held top-level roles at the Fed get very nice consolation prizes in the form of well paid jobs in finance land.

Here is my theory as to why Ferguson resigned and then why the youngster Warsh was pushed into place; I think Bush was going to fill a vacancy with a Warsh appointment, but then as soon as Ferguson relaized how utterly stupid that would be, he resigned, and forced Bush’s hand. In that regard, I count Ferguson as an American Hero and Patriot, because his action has exposed the level of collusion and politics within The Fed!:

1. Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., submitted his resignation Wednesday as Vice Chairman and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, effective April 28, 2006.
Ferguson, who has been a member of the Board since November 5, 1997, submitted his letter of resignation to President Bush. He will not attend the March 27-28 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.

2. President Bush’s decision to elevate three former administration economic advisers to the Federal Reserve Board prompted questions yesterday about whether they would be able to steer the economy independently of the White House they have served.
“This is inevitably going to create the impression that the board is more political than in the past,” Schlesinger said. “This creates more of a burden on Bernanke and company to prove they’re not taking their cues from [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Karl Rove.”
Warsh, 35, who has served on Bush’s National Economic Council for the past four years, is a special assistant to the president for economic policy.

The reason: a lingering impasse between Senate Democrats and the Bush administration regarding the choice of nominees.

Some economists worry the impasse could affect the administration’s ability to respond to the economic downturn. “By not confirming the appointments, the Senate is acting to deprive the White House of some of the best economic advice available,” a former chairman of the CEA, Gregory Mankiw of Harvard University, said.

For more than six months, the president has been unable to fill the vacancies because top Democrats are refusing to approve his nominees until the White House agrees to the Democrats’ choices for vacancies at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

With the deadlock now dragging into March, the administration’s chances of being able to fully staff the current CEA are dwindling. Already, one of Mr. Bush’s nominees, Dennis Carlton of the University of Chicago, has taken his name out of the running. He had been waiting since August to be considered by the Senate.

The remaining nominee, Donald Marron, also of the University of Chicago, is awaiting “an up or down vote,” as the administration searches for a nominee to replace Mr. Carlton, a White House spokeswoman, Emily Lawrimore, said.

That leaves the CEA with just one top-ranking member, its chairman, Edward Lazear. With the White House rushing to respond to an economic downturn, the chairman is “spread way too thin,” a former CEA member, Andrew Samwick of Dartmouth College, said.

Also See: President Bush’s decision to elevate three former administration economic advisers to the Federal Reserve Board prompted questions yesterday about whether they would be able to steer the economy independently of the White House they have served.
“This is inevitably going to create the impression that the board is more political than in the past,” Schlesinger said. “This creates more of a burden on Bernanke and company to prove they’re not taking their cues from [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Karl Rove.”
Warsh, 35, who has served on Bush’s National Economic Council for the past four years, is a special assistant to the president for economic policy.