US Senate confirms Christopher Waller as Fed Governor

Christopher Waller, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, was approved by the Senate on Thursday with a 48-47 vote.

Washington: The US Senate has confirmed Christopher Waller, a regional Federal Reserve official, to serve on the central bank's seven-member board of governors in Washington.

Waller is viewed as a policy dove who will probably fully support the central bank's projection to hold interest rates near zero to support the US economy during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Bloomberg News report.

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"He didn't deserve so tight a confirmation. He will help advance the conduct of monetary and regulatory policy at the Fed," Roberto Perli, a former Fed staffer and now head of global policy research at Cornerstone Macro, tweeted after Waller's confirmation.

President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Waller and Judy Shelton, a conservative economist who advised his 2016 presidential bid, for two vacancies on the Fed's board of governors in July 2019.

But the confirmation process had been held up for months amid mounting controversy over Shelton's views on monetary policy and her calls for closer ties between the White House and the central bank.

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The Senate voted last month to reject a move to advance the nomination of Shelton to the Fed Board, as all Democrats and several Republicans voted against her.

IANS