Trump favors economists for Fed vacancies

Pair who favor lower interest rates are said to get nomination

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plans to nominate Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to fill the two remaining seats on the Federal Reserve Board of governors, the latest push in Trump’s effort to get the central bank to lower interest rates ahead of the 2020 election.

Shelton is a conservative scholar and former adviser to the Trump campaign who told The Washington Post last month that she thinks interest rates should be cut “as fast as possible.”

Waller is an economist who serves as research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He rarely speaks publicly, but his boss, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, was the only member of the Fed’s policy setting committee to vote for an interest-rate cut in June.

Trump has lashed out at the Fed for months, claiming the central bank is harming the economy ahead of the 2020 election by keeping interest rates high. Fed leaders have ignored Trump, saying they are doing what is best for the country by raising rates last year and holding them steady so far this year.

Trump’s last four nominees for the Fed board failed to get through the Senate confirmation process as Republicans broke ranks with Trump to kill the nominations.

“I am pleased to announce that it is my intention to nominate Christopher Waller, PhD, Executive VP and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Missouri, to be on the board of the Federal Reserve,” Trump tweeted Tuesday, adding in another tweet that he also plans to nominate Shelton.

Trump appointed Shelton U.S. executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development early in his tenure, a position that required Senate confirmation. Shelton’s Fed nomination could potentially move faster since she has been vetted before. She holds a doctorate in business administration from the University of Utah and was a fellow for many years at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.