Obama hints at Bernanke's 2014 exit

Paul Davidson | USA TODAY

President Obama let slip this week that he may not be inclined to dissuade Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke from stepping down when his term ends in January.

In an interview with talk show host Charlie Rose, Obama compared Bernanke to departing FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying, "He's already stayed a lot longer than he wanted or he was supposed to."

In the interview, which aired Monday, Obama said Bernanke "has been an outstanding partner along with the White House, in helping us recover much stronger than, for example, our European partners, from what could have been an economic crisis of epic proportions."

Obama has to nominate either Bernanke or a successor as Fed chairman.

Bernanke, 59, has generally evaded questions about his personal plans, saying he's been focused on trying to shift a tepid recovery and job market into a higher gear. But at his last news conference in March, he said he's spoken "a bit" with Obama about his future, adding, "I don't think that I'm the only person in the world who can manage" the winding down of the Fed's extraordinary stimulus.

The former Princeton professor could shed light on his intentions at a news conference Wednesday afternoon following a Fed policymakers' meeting that begins today.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed has purchased more than $2.5 trillion in government bonds to pump cash into the financial system and hold down long-term interest rates. The actions have been credited with sparking a housing rebound and stock market rally, both of which have been key to recent moderate economic growth despite large federal spending cuts and tax hikes.

In a USA TODAY survey of economists earlier this year, about two-thirds predicted Bernanke would leave the Fed when his second four-year term ends in January.

"I think it's pretty clear he would like to step down at the end of this year," says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. "He must be tired. The world was literally on his shoulders."

Likely candidates to succeed Bernanke include Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen. Others include former Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and Lawrence Summers, who was Treasury secretary under President Clinton and a top economic adviser to Obama in his first term.