Fed Independence

A Fed chair like Alan Greenspan is arguably one of the ten most powerful people in the world. Why does congress want the Fed to be politically independent? 

Grasping Reality with Both Hands: "WILLIAM McChesney Martin, a Democrat, was twice reappointed chairman of the United States Federal Reserve by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Paul Volcker, a Democrat, was reappointed once by the Reagan administration (but not twice: there are persistent rumors that Reagan's treasury secretary, James Baker, thought Volcker too invested in monetary stability and not in producing strong economies to elect Republicans).

Alan Greenspan, a Republican, was reappointed twice by Bill Clinton. And now Barack Obama has announced his intention to renominate Republican appointee Ben Bernanke to the post.

The Fed chairmanship is the only position in the US government for which this is so: it is a mark of its unique status as a non or not-very-partisan technocratic position of immense power and freedom of action - nearly a fourth branch of government, as David Wessel's recent book 'In Fed We Trust' puts it."