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There are a plethora of news which deserve close attention but the two most important news of the day are President Bush naming Ben S.Bernanke, a senior White House adviser, to be the next Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and a World Bank study expressing alarm over unrelenting brain drain from poor countries to the wealthy industrialised nations.
The other big news are: Hurricane Wilma hitting Florida with menacing ferocity, bombers striking a Baghdad hotel, France and USA pressing UN to take action against Syria for its involvement in the killing of Rafik Harari, former prime minister of Lebanon, James Wolfensohn immediate past World Bank President now overseeing the peace process in the Middle-East bluntly accusing Israel for creating obstacles to the movement of the Palestinians, visible strains in the US-Canada bilateral ties with Ottowa charging Washington for making a mockey of trade rules, the UN criticising South Africa for failing to live upto its commitment in combating AIDS, it was vice-president Dick Cheney who first briefed his chief of staff Lewis Libby who is now facing possible indictment in CIA leak case, civil rights activists urging Congress to tighten its oversight of FBI and the White House insists that CIA be given power to handle terrorist detainees exempting the agency from the proposed law banning abusive treatment of the Al-Qaeda and Taleban suspected militants.
First, the appointment of Ben S. Bernanke (pronounced Ber Nank ee) as the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve replacing Alan Greenspan who held the office for long 18 years. If confirmed by the Senate Bernankee will take office in January. President Bush has been rather unlucky with his nominations. His first nomination as the secretary of Home Land Security went awry as the nominee withdrew his candidacy in the face of charges of various crimes, John Bolton, US ambassador to UN ,failing to win Senate confirmation, but joining UN with the Congress going into recess and the White House is confronted with all kinds of criticism for nominating Ms Harriet Miers, long time Bush pal and with no experience of sitting in a court bench to be a judge of the supreme court.
But Bernanke's nomination to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve has been widely and loudly applauded. So was John Robert's selection as the chief justice of the supreme court.
Bernankee, 51, was a professor of economics at the Princeton University and a former Fed Governor. There have been five Chairmen in the past half a century. Bernanke is considered an authority on monetary policy. He will hold the most powerful economic position in US, nay, the whole world will follow Greenspans's anti-inflation measures and will set the monetary policy toward a more predictable and open approach based on explicit rules thus breaking away from Greenspans's personal approach in guiding monetary policy.
AFP adds: President George W. Bush on Monday nominated his economic adviser Ben Bernanke as the new Federal Reserve chairman, saying the economist "commands deep respect from the global financial community."
The European Central Bank described Ben Bernanke, the man nominated to take over from Alan Greenspan as head of the US Federal Reserve next year, as a "highly respected central banker and a remarkable economist".
Bernanke "is a highly respected central banker, he's a remarkable economist and a man of experience," ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in comments relayed by an ECB spokesman.
"I will be happy to have the possibility to develop with him the same fruitful cooperation and enjoy the same confidence and friendly relationship that I had with Alan Greenspan," Trichet said.
Meanwhile, US stocks drifted lower in opening trade Tuesday, as investors digested the strongest gains for the broad market in six months and mulled the outlook for the rest of 2005.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 13.45 points (0.13 percent) to 10,371.55 and the Nasdaq composite shed 5.90 points (0.28 percent) to 2,109.93 in the first exchanges.
On Monday stocks rallied on positive earnings news and a perception that equities prices recently have fallen too much.
The rally intensified after the nomination of Ben Bernanke to replace outgoing Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, on the belief he would be more favourable for equities. The major indexes surged more than 1.6 percent.
Alfred Goldman at AG Edwards said he expected the market would "take an early breather following yesterday's surge."
But he also said the rally "confirmed the completion of recent bottoming activity and increases the odds the year-end rally is underway."
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