bobbyw24
03-03-2010, 07:28 PM
By Jia Lynn Yang, writerMarch 3, 2010: 11:17 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- With the impending retirement of Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Don Kohn, it's time for President Obama to get serious finally about filling some long-empty seats at the Fed.
In June three out of seven spots on the board will be open. Incredibly, one of those seats has been empty since August 31, 2008 when Frederic Mishkin stepped down (uncanny timing on his part, considering the financial crisis that soon followed).
So who will Obama pick? There are a few issues to consider going into the search. One is that upon Kohn's retirement, Bernanke will be the only board member with a Ph.D. in economics. Of the remaining board members, Kevin Warsh and Daniel Tarullo have law degrees, and Elizabeth Duke has an M.B.A. While it's a good mix of backgrounds, Obama will probably want another person with heavy-duty expertise in monetary policy.
Another consideration is geographic diversity. The board now is weighted towards people from New York and Washington. "Can we get someone from west of the Appalachia?" asks Michael Brandl, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chief Economic Adviser Larry Summers are leading the search. Here's who they're likely to look at:
Christina Romer
Working alongside Geithner and Summers already, Christina Romer has kept a somewhat low profile as chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. But like Bernanke, she built a star academic career studying the Great Depression. Romer did groundbreaking work showing how monetary policy -- specifically the decision to abandon the gold standard -- played a huge role in the U.S.'s recovery from the crisis.
Other possibilities:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/03/news/economy/fed_candidates.fortune/index.htm
WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- With the impending retirement of Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Don Kohn, it's time for President Obama to get serious finally about filling some long-empty seats at the Fed.
In June three out of seven spots on the board will be open. Incredibly, one of those seats has been empty since August 31, 2008 when Frederic Mishkin stepped down (uncanny timing on his part, considering the financial crisis that soon followed).
So who will Obama pick? There are a few issues to consider going into the search. One is that upon Kohn's retirement, Bernanke will be the only board member with a Ph.D. in economics. Of the remaining board members, Kevin Warsh and Daniel Tarullo have law degrees, and Elizabeth Duke has an M.B.A. While it's a good mix of backgrounds, Obama will probably want another person with heavy-duty expertise in monetary policy.
Another consideration is geographic diversity. The board now is weighted towards people from New York and Washington. "Can we get someone from west of the Appalachia?" asks Michael Brandl, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Chief Economic Adviser Larry Summers are leading the search. Here's who they're likely to look at:
Christina Romer
Working alongside Geithner and Summers already, Christina Romer has kept a somewhat low profile as chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. But like Bernanke, she built a star academic career studying the Great Depression. Romer did groundbreaking work showing how monetary policy -- specifically the decision to abandon the gold standard -- played a huge role in the U.S.'s recovery from the crisis.
Other possibilities:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/03/news/economy/fed_candidates.fortune/index.htm