In late December, in a bipartisan vote, the Senate Banking Committee approved Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. The vote wasn't in any doubt, although the closeness of the margin, 16 to 7, does indicate the contentiousness of Bernanke's nomination. The nomination now heads to the Senate floor, where, barring some unforeseen calamity, he will be nominated to another four year term in January. His nomination should be helped by a recent letter Bernanke wrote responding to written questions from two committee members, in which Bernanke hesitantly endorsed limited audits of the Federal Reserve.

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