FEDERAL RESERVE/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Federal Reserve is facing a significant change in leadership that goes beyond the installation of a new chairman. It is also awaiting the appointment of two other top officials who will play a crucial role in shaping Fed policy.
President Trump, who has already nominated Jerome H. Powell as the Fed’s next chairman, also gets to pick a new vice chairman. But the other open position, the presidency of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is not Mr. Trump’s choice to make.
The New York Fed chooses its own president, a position that is often described as the second-most powerful at the Fed. The regional bank is responsible for implementing the Fed’s monetary policy decisions — raising or lowering interest rates through the purchase and sale of financial assets — and it oversees many of the nation’s largest financial institutions.
Some of Mr. Trump’s political opponents see an opportunity to fill that opening with a counterweight to the president’s economic agenda…
It is unusual for the Fed’s top three jobs to change hands at the same time. Janet L. Yellen, the Fed’s chairwoman, plans to step down at the end of her term in early February, pending the confirmation of Mr. Powell. The Senate Banking Committee, which approved his nomination last session, did so again on Wednesday, clearing the way for a final vote.”
-Binyamin Appelbaum, “Two Federal Reserve Openings Provide One Chance to Counter Trump,” The New York Times online, Jan. 18, 2018