(Reuters) – The White House is considering nominating Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee to serve as vice chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors to succeed Lael Brainard, who is stepping down to become a top White House economics adviser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Goolsbee, 53, has been head of the Chicago Fed for only about a month and has yet to comment publicly on monetary policy since assuming the role from its long-time chief Charles Evans last month. In his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting two weeks ago, he voted in favor of the Fed’s latest rate hike.
The Journal’s report, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter, comes a day after President Joe Biden tapped Brainard to head his National Economic Council.
Brainard has been a Fed board member since 2014 and its vice chair since last May. She also announced her resignation on Tuesday after the Biden appointment was made public, and she will leave the Fed on or about Feb. 20 to take up her new role.
The Fed vice chair plays a key role in forming U.S. monetary policy and is typically held by a PhD economist. Goolsbee, who was head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers for two years during the Obama administration, holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prior to his appointment late last year to head the Chicago Fed, he – like Brainard – had been vocal about the “two-sided risks” the Fed faces, a nod to the possible job-killing aspects of raising interest rates too quickly.
(Reporting by Yana Gaur in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Nick Zieminski)
