Citigroup's Nathan Sheets Makes Sense Of Bernanke's Moves

Nathan Sheets, Global Head of International Economics at

, thinks that after this week's round of testimony, Ben Bernanke will retire as chairman of the Federal Reserve. He discussed this view on Tuesday morning as a guest on CNBC's Squawk Box. "It's been eight, long, grueling years, and my feeling is history is going to be very kind to his stewardship of the Federal Reserve, but I think he's ready to move on and do other things," Said Sheets. Sheets put it simply: Bernanke is tired after eight years of battle, and is confident about his list of possible successors.

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Bernanke has done a good job of helping the public and the markets understand what the Fed is doing, Sheetings said. But in some ways, he noted, the chairman mystifies the Fed as an institution. "Inevitably, the chairman is the voice and the face, of the Federal Reserve. And inevitably, that markets are going to respond to that," Sheets also believes that Bernanke is very pleased with how the markets responded to his Q&A last week. "I think he's happier with the level of the ten-year Treasury. I think he's struck the right balance in his communication. On the one hand the economy is doing better, and as the economy does better, we're not going to be able to continue to purchase at $85 billion a month forever," said Sheets. "But on the other hand, there is still lots of rest, we're going to be gradual, we're going to monitor. Anything we do, it's going to depend on what the data says going forward." Most of the testimony will probably be a restating of much of what Bernanke said last week, Sheets went on to say. "They're trying to respond to the economy's performance as best they can. Nothing is precooked," said Sheets.