Today (10/24/05), President Bush appointed Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Bernanke is currently serving in the White House as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. The stock market immediately responded favorably to the appointment. How much of the market response is a result of the approval of the appointment or just the removal of uncertainty -- the stock market hates uncertainty -- is a matter of conjecture.

Bernanke is best known for a speech he made in November of 2002 in which he said