Washington, Jan 29 (DPA) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was confirmed Thursday to a second term at the helm of the US central bank, heading off a backlash by some lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle over his handling of the financial crisis.
The Senate voted 70-30 to give another four-year term to Bernanke, who was appointed in 2006 by former president George W. Bush and renominated by President Barack Obama. The vote was closer than normal in Fed confirmations.

There were numerous defections by Democrats and Republicans angry with massive government bail-outs of the financial sector and disappointed with the Fed’s failure to stop Wall Street from flirting with a complete collapse in September 2008.

Supporters cited Bernanke’s stewardship of the Fed during the recent economic downturn and argued his renomination would provide stability as the US begins a tentative recovery. US stocks tumbled two percent Friday when his reconfirmation appeared in doubt.

“The chairmanship of Ben Bernanke has in no small measure made it possible for this nation to avoid a catastrophe that I think would have been as large as the Great Depression,” Christopher Dodd, chair of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, said on the chamber floor.

But even Bernanke’s supporters had reservations: Dodd opposes Obama’s proposal to give the Fed new regulatory powers in the wake of the financial crisis, preferring to keep the central bank focused exclusively on monetary policy.

A scholar of the 1930s Great Depression, Bernanke’s Fed quickly cut interest rates to an historic low of close to 0 percent and injected nearly $2 trillion in liquidity into banks to help the US weather its worst economic crisis in seven decades.

But both Democrats and Republicans criticised the central bank for lax regulation and low interest rates that encouraged Wall Street’s meltdown. Others argued the Fed and Treasury Department should never have bailed out the country’s banking sector in the first place.

“I believe in accountability,” said Senator Richard Shelby, the banking committee’s top Republican. “The record clearly indicated that considerable economic devastation occurred as a result of Chairman Bernanke’s loose monetary policy and weak regulatory oversight.”