Not too long ago Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was considered to be assured of being nominated for another term as Chairman of institution, but after a dismal performance at the helm of the agency, it’s not necessarily a foregone conclusion he’ll continue on with his duties.

While it’s best to eventually eliminate the Federal Reserve, as monetary policy coming forth from the organization for decades has devastated the American economy and dollar, it probably really doesn’t matter who’s at the helm if they continue their misguided practice of printing money to solve all financial problems; the reason the U.S. dollar has fallen in value close to 95 percent since its inception.

Obama has already nominated Bernanke for a second four-year term, but Congress must give its approval before that can become a reality, and there is some very real hesitation by a number of lawmakers on whether to support the decision or not.

Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., announced that the hearing would be held on December 3. Bernanke was nominated by President George W. Bush for his first term.

Speaking of Dodd, he has been highly critical of the Federal Reserve in general and Bernanke specifically on the handling of the economic crisis, asserting Bernanke should have seen it coming and acted sooner than he did.

Consequently, Dodd has proposed creating a super financial regulatory agency while drastically weakening the Federal Reserve. Dodd himself has come under heavy criticism, not only going against the grain of Obama and what he wants, but in reality possibly making things even worse. The dismal performance history of the Federal Reserve shows that some powerful agency will never be the answer to financial crisis, but rather fuels them through their misguided monetary policies.

Much of that has emerged from Dodd’s battle for his political life, as he’s behind in the race for his Connecticut seat. He is attempting to make it look like he’s championing reform to the electorate to gain votes, but it’s highly unlikely that will work, as the public has just enough understanding of the situation to not believe in the cynical move by Dodd.

Another problem with the super agency thing is it does take the focus off the Federal Reserve, which has been under heavy fire in general for its secretive decisions the public or lawmakers aren’t allowed to get a look at.

Ron Paul has fought an uphill battle to get the Federal Reserve audited as a first step to hopefully eliminating them as an agency. He was recently successful with that endeavor, with an amendment being approved to keep his original language in his HR 1207 bill which would require the Federal Reserve to be audited completely for the first time in its history. At this time they just throw out the information crumbs they want Congress and the American people to see.

Back to Ben Bernanke. He will probably be confirmed as the continuing Chairman of the Federal Reserve, although with a somewhat tarnished imaged and possibly a little bit of humility. Hopefully so.

Until the Federal Reserve and its practices is brought fully into the open, it little matters who runs the agency, as we’ll continue to pay the price for their monetary policies which have largely been allowed to run for decades without any type of oversight or checks and balances. That must change.