There comes a time in every Federal Reserve chairman’s life when he must beg to be reappointed to his job.  That time has come for Ben Bernanke, whose current term as chairman is up next February, and the dull process of figuring out who should be chairman after that is underway.

If it seems like just yesterday that Benny came into our lives, it really was.  A chairman’s term is four years, and Alan Greenspan held the post for something like sixty years, despite having died in 1998.  He just kept getting re-appointed by president after president in spite of his efforts to ruin the economy, which is why Ben will also keep his job forever.

Ben’s only real competition for the job may well be Larry Summers, and wouldn’t that be an unprecedented disaster on so many levels.  Timmy is said to have the president’s ear on who should be nominated, and with two current vacancies on the Board of Governors, anyone could be named to the Board and to chairman, kind of like John Roberts on the Supreme Court.