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The US Senate is due to vote on a second term for Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke tomorrow. The President nominated Bernanke for another term despite the fact that many of the most egregious failures of the financial system took place under his watch. A number of progressive leaning Democratic senators including Bernie Sanders and Russ Feingold have led an opposition to block Bernanke’s reappointment, especially given the increasing public disillusionment with the financial crisis and how it is being handled by the White House. In a speech earlier this month Bernanke attempted to explain the origins of the crisis by saying that it was because of “not only weaknesses in regulators’ oversight of financial institutions, but also, more fundamentally, important gaps in the architecture of financial regulation around the world.” But critics have pointed out that as the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke had the power to reign in financial institutions but instead did nothing. Now, with the full weight of the White House behind him, the Fed chair’s confirmation on Thursday seems assured of the necessary number of Senate votes.

GUEST: Robert D. Auerbach, Professor of Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of “Deception and Abuse at the Fed, Henry B. Gonzalez Battles Alan Greenspan’s Bank”