Laurence H Meyer

The seven-member Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which sets interest rate policy along with the heads of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, gets extra scrutiny in election years, particularly when economic growth is flagging, as it is now. President Clinton on Thursday announced the reappointment of Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman and nominated two new governors--Alice M. Rivlin and Laurence H. Meyer--to fill vacant seats. The jobs pay $123,100 a year.

Economist Janet L. Yellen, a California-based official of the Federal Reserve, has emerged as President Obama's likely nominee to be vice chairwoman of the central bank. Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a former UC Berkeley professor who headed President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors in the 1990s, would succeed 40-year Fed veteran Donald L. Kohn. Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago and a former advisor to the Fed, said she had known Yellen for many years, calling her "one of the sharpest knives in the drawer."

Alice M. Rivlin and Laurence H. Meyer would bring to the Federal Reserve Board the technical skills of first-rate economists and perhaps a slight tilt toward easier money. But although both are Democrats, Fed watchers agree that they could not mount a serious liberal challenge to the tight-money policies of Alan Greenspan, the Fed's Republican chairman, even if they were so inclined.

The central bank will try to cushion a coming economic slowdown, Federal Reserve Gov. Laurence Meyer said Monday, addressing growing fears that the global financial wildfire is intensifying. Fed policymakers decided last week to cut short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly three years, signaling that the Fed was prepared to act to offset clearly rising risks, Meyer told the National Assn. for Business Economics.

Economist Janet L. Yellen, a California-based official of the Federal Reserve, has emerged as President Obama's likely nominee to be vice chairwoman of the central bank. Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a former UC Berkeley professor who headed President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors in the 1990s, would succeed 40-year Fed veteran Donald L. Kohn. Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago and a former advisor to the Fed, said she had known Yellen for many years, calling her "one of the sharpest knives in the drawer."

Voting for continuity in monetary policy, President Clinton on Thursday nominated Alan Greenspan to a third term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and chose to fill two other central bank vacancies with a moderate White House budget official and a centrist economic consultant. The nominations signaled White House acceptance of an eight-year Greenspan stewardship of the Fed that has emphasized price stability over economic growth.

The central bank will try to cushion a coming economic slowdown, Federal Reserve Gov. Laurence Meyer said Monday, addressing growing fears that the global financial wildfire is intensifying. Fed policymakers decided last week to cut short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly three years, signaling that the Fed was prepared to act to offset clearly rising risks, Meyer told the National Assn. for Business Economics.

House Banking Committee Chairman James Leach (R-Iowa) said Thursday that his panel will hold hearings later this month on the recently announced bank mergers. "The case for greater competition and homogenization within the financial services industry--banking, securities and insurance--may be compelling, but the precept that banks should be intertwined with general commercial companies demands great scrutiny," Leach said.

Alan Greenspan, who has served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board since 1987, got a different title Friday--temporary chairman of the Fed. The board voted to provide Greenspan with that designation because his term as chairman expires today and he has not yet been confirmed for another term. Fed officials said that under law the board has the power to designate a chairman pro tempore and that person can serve until the Senate confirms a permanent chairman.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, charging that the tax revision bill awaiting House action could "deindustrialize America," called on President Reagan and Congress today to abandon the current struggle for tax simplification. "It's time to take it off the table and put it aside," said chamber president Richard Lesher.

The seven-member Federal Reserve Board of Governors, which sets interest rate policy along with the heads of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, gets extra scrutiny in election years, particularly when economic growth is flagging, as it is now. President Clinton on Thursday announced the reappointment of Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman and nominated two new governors--Alice M. Rivlin and Laurence H. Meyer--to fill vacant seats. The jobs pay $123,100 a year.

Alice M. Rivlin and Laurence H. Meyer would bring to the Federal Reserve Board the technical skills of first-rate economists and perhaps a slight tilt toward easier money. But although both are Democrats, Fed watchers agree that they could not mount a serious liberal challenge to the tight-money policies of Alan Greenspan, the Fed's Republican chairman, even if they were so inclined.

Voting for continuity in monetary policy, President Clinton on Thursday nominated Alan Greenspan to a third term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and chose to fill two other central bank vacancies with a moderate White House budget official and a centrist economic consultant. The nominations signaled White House acceptance of an eight-year Greenspan stewardship of the Fed that has emphasized price stability over economic growth.

The nominations of Alan Greenspan to serve another four years as Federal Reserve chairman and of vice chair-designee Alice M. Rivlin and Laurence H. Meyer will be approved later this week by the full Senate. But the delay caused for several weeks by Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa), Paul Wellstone (Minn.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and Harry Reid (Nevada) was a significant if overlooked milestone in the evolution of economic policy in the 1990s.

As they prepared to consider possible interest rate changes, Federal Reserve Board policymakers were told Wednesday that U.S. economic growth remains modest with little sign of inflation at the consumer level. In May and early June, the economy even gained in some regions, the Federal Reserve reported, while wages stayed mostly in check despite labor shortages.