FEDERAL RESERVE/NOMINATIONS: “The prospect of a second term for Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen won’t be on the agenda at the central bank’s annual retreat this week at Grand Teton National Park, but the question of whether she could be asked to stay on—and whether she would accept—will be hanging over the confab.
Ms. Yellen hasn’t said whether she would want a second term if it was offered. Still, some friends and former colleagues say her long record of public service and her devotion to the Fed are clues that she would be disposed to accept a nomination.
The Fed has outlined plans to slowly begin shrinking its $4.2 trillion holdings of mortgage and Treasury securities this fall and to raise rates one more time this year after that. Policy decisions beyond December are clouded by the succession question, and that uncertainty could increasingly weigh on markets, especially because President Donald Trump has indicated he is considering a wide range of potential candidates.
Ms. Yellen’s term as chairwoman expires in early February. Mr. Trump has said he is considering asking her to serve a second term, though he may not announce his nominee until late this year.
Mr. Trump has said his economic policy director, Gary Cohn, is also in the running for the Fed job. The president has declined to name other possible candidates, but they are likely to fall into two camps—conservative economists such as John Taylor of Stanford University, or nonacademics with a business background, such as Fed governor Jerome Powell or former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.”
-Nick Timiraos, “Janet Yellen’s Future at the Fed Unresolved Heading Into Jackson Hole,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 24, 2017 05:30am