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Of all the legacies presidents leave behind, few are as important — yet as poorly understood in the moment — as their picks for chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Paul Volcker, credited with taming double-digit inflation through backbreaking high interest rates that contributed to the recession of the early 1980s, was among President Jimmy Carter's most consequential appointments.

Similarly, President Ronald Reagan's selection of Alan Greenspan, the economic "maestro" selected in 1987 — and who ran the Fed for nearly two decades — seemed mostly sage. Well, until after his 2006 retirement, when Greenspan's once nearly absolute faith in the self-correcting powers of markets was dashed against the rocks of the housing bubble and the worst recession since the Great Depression.

So whoever President Obama chooses to replace current Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is scheduled to step down in January, is likely to have an influence beyond the Obama presidency. The new chairman's four-year term would extend a year beyond Obama's second term. The choice, in short, is likely to be the gift that keeps giving.

And since Obama is unlikely to get many of his second-term economic priorities through the GOP-controlled House, the person he picks to lead the Fed may represent the president's best chance to accomplish his remaining economic agenda.

A Fed chairman might be able to accomplish some of what Obama seeks through monetary policy. Bernanke, for instance, used the technique called "quantitative easing," in which the central bank bought bonds to keep as much liquidity in the economy as possible. For Obama, it was akin to a second economic stimulus plan that the president could never have gotten through the "hell no" House.

All this helps to explain the great interest in Obama's choice, and why lobbying is in full gear by allies of the two candidates thought to top Obama's short list.

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