Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s appearance before a congressional committee on Wednesday had, at times, the feel of a retirement send-off.
“Do you anticipate that this will be your last time testifying before this committee?” Representative Sean Duffy, a Republican from Wisconsin, asked.
“My term expires in February, and so it may well be,” she responded with perhaps just a hint of wistfullness.
President Donald Trump has a chance to reshape the leadership of the world’s most influential monetary authority, and few observers think he’ll pass up the opportunity to bring in new blood. While he hasn’t ruled out reappointing Yellen to another four years, some Fed watchers aren’t giving her much of a chance. So who might be next to helm the world’s central bank? Here’s a short list of possible candidates whose names are floating around Washington.
Gary Cohn
Gary Cohn, Trump’s senior economic adviser, has garnered the most recent attention after Politico reported Tuesday that he’s the leading candidate. He was previously reported to be in charge of the search for the next Fed chair. Cohn, 56, has said he’s not interested in the position, and White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that he’d “been pretty clear that he loves his job and he’s happy doing what he’s doing.”
Before joining team Trump, he worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for more than 25 years, including a decade as president -- a line in his resume that will surely attract ire from Democrats if he’s nominated. While at Goldman he criticized the Fed for pumping liquidity into the financial system to stimulate the economy while simultaneously telling banks they needed to build up capital and be careful lending it out.
Kevin Warsh
Another potential candidate is Kevin Warsh, a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011 who drew on his Wall Street experience at Morgan Stanley to play a key behind-the-scenes role in efforts to quell the financial crisis. He’s been a vocal critic of the central bank since then, advocating widespread changes in how it carries out monetary policy and communicates with the public.
As a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Warsh, 47, was a member of the business-advisory council that met with Trump in February. He’s also married to cosmetics heir Jane Lauder, daughter of Trump friend Ronald Lauder.