AFP via Breitbart.com
4/29/2010
Barack Obama presented three nominees to join the US Federal Reserve Board, moving to put a stamp on the central bank that would outlast his presidency.
Obama’s candidates look set to boost the Fed’s focus on beating rampant unemployment, one of the president’s biggest challenges as Congress heads to midterm elections later this year.
Around one in ten American workers is currently unemployed.
Obama named Janet Yellen — known for her sharp focus on tackling unemployment — to become the Fed’s number two, at a time when the bank faces some of the most momentous decisions in its 97-year history.
In a move that would help decide US economic policy as the country battles to exit a crippling recession, Obama also named MIT economist Peter Diamond and financial regulator Sarah Raskin to fill two empty board posts.
If confirmed by the Senate all three will be members of the powerful Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates and has a key role in dictating the tempo of economic activity…
… “Yellen is very qualified” said Robert Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist for Cumberland Advisors and former executive vice president of the Atlanta regional Fed.
“She was intimately involved in financial crisis issues throughout its duration so she needs no tool-up time.”
But Eisenbeis added the nominations of Diamond and Raskin were more controversial.
Although they are experts in two major issues facing the US economy: financial regulation and the looming pension crisis, Eisenbeis said, they had very little experience in monetary policy — the Fed’s mainstay.
If Obama’s nominees are successful he will have appointed five of seven members of the Federal Reserve Board.
The complete article is at Breitbart.com
