Fed Chair Race Now a Media 'Circus'

WASHINGTON — President Obama as of Friday had yet to name a nominee for Federal Reserve Board chairman, but the selection process has already drawn unprecedented media coverage.

The Washington Post's Neil Irwin tried to explore why in an article Friday, dubbing the situation a "public circus" because of several factors. Those include the rise of more politically-focused media like Business Insider and Politico, mismanagement by the White House in discussing its options and the heightened importance of the pick following the financial crisis.

Irwin also blames the personality of Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary widely seen as Obama's top choice for the job, who is a "bull in every china shop he has happened to enter."

"Drama just follows him, from his time at the World Bank to the Clinton administration to the Harvard presidency," Irwin writes.

Yet some other pundits suggest that the only reason the issue is so contentious is due to Summers himself, and other factors are relatively unimportant.

"If Larry Summers withdrew himself from consideration, or the White House announced that it isn't going to pick him, the circus tents would pack up and we could all go home," wrote Josh Barro for Business Insider. "The Fed chair race would become uncontroversial and boring again."

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