Bond Buying
After a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed said yesterday that persistently low inflation could hamper the economic expansion and it pledged to keep buying $85 billion in bonds every month.
Some Senate Democrats, including Durbin, have publicly questioned whether Summers should lead the Fed. They raised concerns about Summers’s role in advocating deregulation during President Bill Clinton’s administration that many blame for later creating the financial crisis.
In 1998 Summers, Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin blocked efforts by Brooksley Born, then-chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to regulate the derivatives market. It later expanded to include the toxic instruments that led to the 2008 financial market crisis.
After the meeting yesterday, Durbin reiterated to reporters that he would have “a number of questions” for Summers if he were nominated.
“I’m not saying I’ll vote against him, but I’ll certainly ask a few questions,” he said.