As White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department staff prepare Janet Yellen to face the U.S. Senate for her nomination as the next Federal Reserve chairman, one experience remains seared in their memories: Ben S. Bernanke’s close call in 2010. In the final days before the confirmation vote, aides concluded there was a real risk that Bernanke’s renomination would fail. Voter anger and lawmaker distrust stirred by the Fed’s role in bailing out Wall Street banks less than two years earlier combined to nearly sink his bid, which required a last-minute rescue operation that involved the president himself. That ... (full story)