AN ALAN GREENSPAN SUCCESSOR:

Ben Bernanke, the White House economic adviser who has urged the Federal Reserve to articulate its preferred rate of inflation, will be nominated to succeed Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, reports said Monday. A formal announcement is expected at 1 p.m. EDT.

Bernanke, who gained a reputation as a monetary moderate while a Fed governor from 2002 to 2005, was named chairman of the White House council of economic advisers in June. He is the former head of Princeton’s economics department and received his economics education at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At a time President Bush is battling criticism of his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the choice of Bernanke is viewed as a safe one.

I don’t know much about him. Kudlow likes him.