Early last December.

Early last December, Mark Olson got to do something that not many bankers ever dream of doing.

It started late united night--Thursday, Dec. 6--when the Senate confirmed Olson and Susan Schmidt Bies, to seats forward the Federal Reserve Board.

The nearest morning, Olson and Bies (pronounced "buys") dutifully reported to the imposing F headquarters forward Constitution Avenue, expecting to exhaust Friday filling out paperwork, making the cylindricals of introductions, and little otherwise

Instead, a senior staffer pok his head in, with a message. The staff planned to make trial of to get the White House to finalize things with equal reason that the ...