E-Mail This Article to a Friend YOUR MONEY, YOUR LIFE Meet Ben Bernanke BY ADAM REILLY

Think you’ll miss Alan Greenspan? Think again.

Earlier this week, President George W. Bush tapped former Princeton University economist Ben Bernanke to head the Federal Reserve when current Fed chairman Alan Greenspan retires in January. In theory, it’s easy to understand what the Fed does: put simply, it shapes American monetary policy. But making sense of a) what prompts the Fed to act, and b) how its decisions affect the national and global economies, isn’t easy. In fact, the Fed’s intense inscrutability is one reason Greenspan has come to be seen as a kind of latter-day Delphic Oracle. (Another reason is Greenspan’s disturbing, gnome-like appearance.)

Assuming he’s confirmed — and with the current Washington love-fest surrounding him, it seems likely that he will be — how will Bernanke make his mark on the Fed? Sure, he will follow Greenspan’s number-one goal of making sure rich people’s money retains its value by fighting inflation. But it’s already clear that the ascension of Bernanke, who currently chairs Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, will offer some intriguing benefits. Consider:

• The citizenry can stop picturing Greenspan and NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell in bed together.

• Bernanke’s a fashion rebel — with a cause! After Bush made fun of his decision to wear tan socks with a dark suit, Bernanke reportedly distributed several pairs of tan socks to White House insiders during his next meeting with the president. Hilarious.

• Greenspan’s exit will knock Ayn Randians everywhere down a peg or two. Thank God. What is it with those people?

• By all accounts, Bernanke, who is a registered Republican, is a largely non-ideological figure. Contrast that to Greenspan, whose unwillingness to oppose Bush’s radical tax-cutting program was as passive-aggressively ideological as it gets.

• Best of all, Bernanke wasn’t just a saxophonist in high school. He was an all-state saxophonist.

January can’t come soon enough.