While he would have preferred that Janet Yellen be reappointed chair of the Federal Reserve, Fed expert Narayana Kocherlakota says, “Federal Reserve Governor Jerome (Jay) Powell is an excellent nomination.”
President Trump last week nominated Powell to succeed Yellen as Fed chief.
Kocherlakota, the Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics at Rochester, served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015, during which time he worked closely with Powell. Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Obama in 2011, and began serving in 2012.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Kocherlakota said Powell is “deeply knowledgeable about the workings of the Federal Reserve and deeply committed to its public service mission.” He added,
“I hope that the Senate will move quickly to confirm Governor Powell in his new position.”
Kocherlakota also praised Yellen, who was nominated as chair of the Federal Reserve System by President Obama in 2013.
“Yellen has done an outstanding job of fulfilling the Federal Reserve’s dual monetary policy mandates of price stability and maximum employment,” he said.
Before heading the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Kocherlakota held academic appointments at Stanford, Northwestern, the University of Iowa, and the University of Minnesota. He joined the faculty at Rochester in January 2016.
His research interests have included money and payments, business cycles, financial economics, public finance, and dynamic games and contracts. He’s currently focusing on monetary policy.
Listen to a recent interview with Narayana Kocherlakota or read the transcript.
