Fed’s New Chairman to be Announced Within Months

President Barack Obama has narrowed his choice for the next Federal Reserve chairman “to some extraordinarily qualified candidates” and will announce his nominee “over the next several months,” he told the New York Times.

In an interview on July 24, Obama said his nominee for Fed chair should be someone who understands the Fed’s dual mandate of price stability and keeping the unemployment rate low.

Obama this past week began a series of speeches centered on promoting policies designed to help middle-class Americans, and the president linked that goal to the selection of the next Fed chief. Read more Fed coverage on Economy & Politics page.

“What I’m looking for is somebody who understands the Fed has a dual mandate, that that’s not just lip service; that it is very important to keep inflation in check, to keep our dollar sound, and to ensure stability in the markets,” Obama said. “But the idea is not just to promote those things in the abstract. The idea is to promote those things in service of the lives of ordinary Americans getting better.”

Obama also said that the new Fed chief must be able to keep an eye on inflation and the markets and “make sure that we’re not creating new bubbles.”

Speculation about a replacement for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has focused on former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Janet Yellen, the current vice chairman of the Fed. Obama said he hasn’t made a final decision about who to name.

Bernanke’s term expires at the end of January 2014.

MarketWatch

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