HiIlsenrath: White House Preparing Bernanke's Replacement

WSJ reporter Jon Hilsenrath reports:

The Obama administration has begun assembling a short list of candidates for the Federal Reserve chairmanship, in the expectation that Ben Bernanke won't seek reappointment when his second term ends in January, according to people familiar with the matter.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is putting together the list, working closely with a small number of senior White House officials.

People familiar with the process wouldn't divulge any names on the short list, but said there was no front-runner. The White House is still in an early stage of the process and might not announce its selection until the early fall, they said.

Many reports suggest that Fed vice-chair Janet Yellen is the frontrunner to replace Bernanke, that may be the case, but Stanley Fischer, the current head of the Bank of Israel, and an American, is stepping down from his post as governor of Israel's central bank in a couple of day's, June 30, and may also be  a candidate, along with Larry Summers.