'I Did Not Anticipate a Crisis of This Magnitude'

Ben Bernanke took some serious lumps today on Capitol Hill, but he still seems to have the support he'll need to get a second term as chief of the Federal Reserve. "I did not anticipate a crisis of this magnitude," he told members of a Senate panel during the sometimes contentious confirmation hearing. “In the area where we had responsibility, the bank holding companies, we should have done more. That is a mistake we won’t make again.”

Even if Republicans follow through with threats to force Democrats to come up with 60 votes to keep Bernanke in place, he appears to have the needed support, reports the New York Times. What's unclear is whether the Fed will continue to wield as much power as it does now. Lawmakers in both parties are making noises about stripping the agency of some regulatory power.
(More Ben Bernanke stories.)