Saturday, December 24, 2016

Something to Think About Going Into the New Year: Trump Could Get Seven Appointments To The Fed

There are two vacant seats Donald Trump can fill as soon as he takes office and gets the Senate to confirm them, but that is only for starters.

There could be four or five more in the next two years.

Fed Chair  Janet Yellen four-year ends on February 3, 2018. The same date is when Stanley Fischer's vice-chairmanship ends. It is unlikely, but technically, Yellen can stay on the Board as non-chair until January 31, 2024, after her chairmanship ends.

The same is true for Vice Chair Stanley Fischer. His board term technically lasts after his vice-chairmanship until January 31, 2020. It is unlikley he will stay. So 2018 is the big year for the Fed board with both Yellen and Fischer leaving leadership positions that Trump will have to fill.

Beyond that the other three serving Board of Governors members are Daniel Tarullo, whose term does not end until January 31, 2022; Jerome Powell, whose term isn’t over until January 31, 2028; and Lael Brainard, whose term ends on January 31, 2026.

But John Mauldin at Forbes says they may leave early.

Brainard wants to leave says Mauldin, so does Tarullo.

Of Governor Powell, he writes:
 Jerome Powell’s background is impressive, but I wonder if he would want to be the last man standing of the current governors. I have heard nothing either way, and no one seems to really know—other than Governor Powell. 
 So, it’s possible, according to Mauldin, that Trump gets at least six and maybe seven appointments  to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve within his first two years.

Since Trump does not appear to have any anchor to his economic thinking, its anyone's guess as to who will fill the various vacancies, though unfortunately, I do not expect Ron Paul, Joe Salerno por Murray Sabrin to be among Trump's picks.

 -RW

2 comments:

  1. Perhaps they see that Federal Reserve manipulated monetary policy will inevitably result in degradation of the currency.

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  2. Someone should look into the Obama appointment of Neel Kashkari as president of the Minneapolis Fed. He ran for governor of California as a "conservative" Republican in California--though he had been an Obama donor and voter in 2008 and 2012. Was there a deal for Kashkari to use the Leftist California Republicans to destroy the California Republican Party?

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