But Mr. Posen said that the market turbulence of recent months showed that investors still thought the choice of chairman would determine the course of policy.
In a free country, the newspaper publishes a story, it influences television, it reaches the public, then it helps to shape the course of policy.
The downside risk is returning.I understand why Mr Bernanke, and the rest of the FOMC, would consider it to be too soon to say anything definitive about the future course of policy.
Since then, several Fed officials have publicly questioned his decision in September, highlighting a growing divide over the course of policy that would number among Ms. Yellen's immediate challenges.
Mr. Hollande campaigned on "change" and a more traditional presidency, where he would set the main course of policy but not micromanage day-to-day affairs, as Mr. Sarkozy did.
Moreover, there is a huge election in November that could dramatically change the course of policy.
With a limited scope for trying to rescue an economy after a crash, the best course of policy action is to try to engineer an orderly housing correction before it is too late.
The degree to which actors are able to influence the course of policy making process as well as the content of the policy depends, amongst others, on their perceived or actual power [ 25, 27].
The letter warns that a "change in course" of policies could "put the recovery at risk".
As The New York Times pointed out, just 158 families donated roughly half of the early dollars in the 2016 election, giving this remarkably small sliver of the American people extraordinary influence over the course of policies that affect all of us.
