MW: Bernanke loses support of key Senate Republican
By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee announced Thursday that he will vote against Federal Reserve board chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second four-year term. While Bernanke is still expected to win the support from the entire panel, Shelby's opposition means the Fed won't be able to count on Republican support to fend off sweeping changes to the Fed's regulatory powers put forward by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D.-Conn., the chairman of the panel. Dodd has said that the Fed's oversight of the biggest banks prior to the financial crisis was an "abysmal failure." Dodd has proposed stripping the oversight power from the Fed and giving it to a new single banking regulator to oversee the financial sector.
