Get used to hearing a lot more from Ben Bernanke.
The Federal Reserve chairman, breaking with 98 years of central bank history, said yesterday he will hold four news conferences a year — a move aimed at better countering sharp Republican criticism over the effect of his record economic stimulus plans.
The first such conference will be held April 27 at 2:15 p.m. and will be streamed on the Fed’s Web site.
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“It’s an exercise in political survival,” said portfolio chief Peter S. Cohan, of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. “The chairman is offering more visibility and transparency in an effort to assure the Fed will remain free from political interference.”
“Bernanke will have to stand up in front of the cameras to justify his policies,” added senior economist Michael Pento of Euro Pacific Capital. “It’s getting harder for him to convince the public there’s no inflation while food and energy prices keep rising.”
To be sure, the Fed’s quantitative-easing program, known as QE2, under which it is purchasing up to $600 billion of Treasuries, has stirred some fear among consumers that it is fueling inflation. Bernanke has denied QE2 is pumping up prices, but shoppers are feeling the pain every time they open their wallets.
Recently, banking officials have displayed a tin ear to that point of view. In Queens, Bill Dudley, the New York Fed boss, was heckled when he maintained there was no inflation in grocery store prices.
There is a good chance that topic will come up at April’s talk, but despite the downside the Fed said it was time for change.
“The introduction of regular press briefings is intended to further enhance the clarity and timeliness of the [Fed’s] monetary-policy communication,” the central bank said in a statement.
Analysts noted Bernanke is just catching up with the rest of the world. Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England hold quarterly give-and-take sessions with the media in sometimes adversarial briefings.
Fed watchers said Bernanke has grown thin-skinned from critics in Congress campaigning to strip the Fed of its political independence.
The central bank chief has appeared regularly before Congress and has kept a stoic calm despite sometimes circus-like grilling and political grandstanding by lawmakers.
This week the Supreme Court ordered the Fed to provide the media with names of banks that had taken last-resort aid in the financial crisis.