President Joe Biden on Friday announced the nominations of three individuals to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, including Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Federal Reserve and Treasury official, for the top regulatory post and Lisa Cook, who would be the first black woman to serve on the Fed’s board.
Biden also nominated Phillip Jefferson, an economist, dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina and a former Fed research fellow. The three nominees, who must be confirmed by the Senate, would complete the seven-member Fed board.
They would join the Fed at a particularly challenging time when the central bank will undertake the delicate task of raising its benchmark interest rate to try to curb high inflation without undermining the recovery from the pandemic recession. On Wednesday, the government reported that inflation hit a four-decade high in December.
If the nominations are approved, Biden’s choices would significantly increase the diversity of the Fed. Cook and Jefferson would be only the fourth and fifth black governors in the Fed’s 108-year history. And for the first time, a majority of the board would be composed of female appointees.
In late November, Biden also nominated Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Fed chairman and chose Fed board member Lael Brainard as vice chair.
“This group will bring much-needed experience, judgment and leadership to the Federal Reserve, while bringing a diversity of thought and perspective never before seen on the Board of Governors,” Biden said in a statement on Friday.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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