Dump Jackson Not Hamilton

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Bill Bernanke has joined those who are criticizing the plans announced by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew last week to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. It's not that critics are opposed to having a woman on paper currency, it's just that they don't think the nation's first Treasury Secretary should be the one to get the ax to allow it. Bernanke said in his Brookings Institution blog that he was appalled by the decision, writing, "Hamilton was without a doubt the best and more foresighted economic policymaker in U.S. history . . . as Treasury Secretary Hamilton put in place the institutional basis for the modern U.S. economy."

Bernanke said that it should be Andrew Jackson instead who gets the boot, putting a woman on the $20 bill, describing Jackson as "a man of many unattractive qualities and a poor president." He also noted that Jackson fought strongly against a national banking system, saying, "Given his views on central banking, Jackson would probably be fine with having his image dropped from a Federal Reserve note." The organization that got the issue of having a woman on paper currency into the headlines, Women on 20s, had in fact wanted a woman to replace Jackson on the $20 bill. But Lew said Hamilton was chosen simply because the $10 bill was the next in line for a redesign. Are you surprised that the plan to bump Hamilton has gotten the opposition it has, or do you think Lew should have expected taking a Founding Father off the currency might have drawn some backlash?