Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve Chairman, has been voted by the US Senate to serve his second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the United States’ Central Bank. The Senate voted 70-30 in favor of Bernanke, giving him his second term in one of the closest margin of victory in the history of the Senate.

Mainly criticized because of his alleged lack of effort in avoiding the economic recession and for supporting the bank bailouts, many supporters of Bernanke have claimed that without the steady hand of Bernanke in guiding the world’s most powerful Central Bank, the situation would have been much worse.

“Chairman Bernanke will continue to play a vitally important role in guiding the nation’s economy,” comments Timothy Geithner, the United States Secretary of Treasury. Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse commented that this is the time that the Fed should use its “enormous powers” to help people and the nation in recovering after the recession. He further adds that if the Fed had helped the major US financial institutions the last time, it is now time for them to turn their heads towards the American families who are still in dire need of help.

President Obama, who has been lobbying for Bernanke’s reelection, was very pleased with the Senate’s decision. He was all praises for the Fed chairman’s wisdom and steady leadership throughout the economic recession.

Though there are still some skeptics, especially with regard to the way Bernanke directed the Fed during the recession, many supporters agree that without Bernanke, the United States would have been in much worse condition during this economic crash. They credit him for avoiding another Great Depression.

Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as the Fed chairman in 2006 under the Bush administration. Before heading the Fed, Bernanke was a scholar of the Great Depression and spent most of his career as an economic professor at Princeton University.