Just imagine the jokes ...
"Chuck Norris doesn't target inflation. He roundhouse kicks it into submission."
"Chuck Norris doesn't buy gold to hedge against inflation. Gold buys Chuck Norris to hedge against inflation."
Although the fitness guru and star of TV's "Walker, Texas Ranger" may not have a Ph.D. in economics and hasn't paid his dues as a Fed governor, some in the market think that he just may be a better choice to follow Ben Bernanke than a more-seasoned candidate like Larry Summers or Janet Yellen.
Is it a joke? Well, sort of.
Lars Christensen, chief analyst at Danske Bank, proposed the idea in a recent blog post, contending that the Federal Reserve should be more rule-based, with a more focused directive than it currently has. In this situation, anyone could be Fed chairman— even Chuck Norris—since explicit market conditions could dictate Fed policy, instead of a decision maker with more "discretion."
"We have far too much focus on who should run this institution rather than what the institution should be about. What rules should it follow? What should it target?" Christensen explained on "Squawk on the Street" Friday.
"For example, as I had suggested, nominal GDP, then it would be very clear. It wouldn't really matter who would be Fed chairman. ... We should define very clear rules for what we want to achieve and then, more or less, let the market decide on monetary policy."
(Related: 'Battle-hardened' Summers for Fed head: Altman)
Christensen argued that in the 1990's, a more rules-based approach was a good thing and allowed monetary policy to be guided by signals in the market, instead of the other way around.