Bush Picks Adviser as Greenspan's Successor; Bernanke Pledges to Maintain Continuity at Federal Reserve
President Bush yesterday named his top economic adviser, Ben S. Bernanke, to succeed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who steps down Jan. 31 after helping guide the U.S. economy for more than 18 years.</br></br>Bernanke, 51, who served as a Fed board member and once chaired Princeton University's economics department, "is the right man to build on the record Alan Greenspan has established," Bush said to reporters in the Oval Office yesterday.</br></br>Bernanke assured listeners that Greenspan's coming retirement will not trigger any significant shift in the Fed policies -- primarily the adjustment of interest rates -- that have helped deliver solid economic growth, low inflation and low unemployment for much of the past two decades.</br></br>"My first priority will be to maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years," Bernanke told reporters, as the Fed chairman stood a few feet away. "If confirmed by the Senate, I will do everything in my power, in collaboration with my Fed colleagues, to help ensure the continued prosperity and stability of the American economy."</br></br>Stock prices rose yesterday as Wall Street welcomed the selection of a highly regarded economist who has focused his academic career on studying Fed policy, whose thinking is well known to financial markets and who would arrive with recent experience working with Greenspan at the Fed, analysts said.