The debate over whether Janet Yellen or Lawrence H. Summers will be the next Federal Reserve chairman — or some dark horse, Timothy F. Geithner perhaps? — is doubtlessly important.
But few outside the arcane world of banking rules understand that on matters of financial regulation and reform, the Federal Reserve staff is just as powerful, maybe even more.
Federal Reserve chairmen and governors come — and then go back to their gilded Wall Street corners or quiet academic redoubts. Regulatory staffs form the permanent government of Washington.
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