Policymaker Lacker's departure leaves US Fed on shakier ground

Washington

TUESDAY'S sudden resignation of a US central bank policymaker finds the Federal Reserve on shakier ground, with the Trump administration poised to reshape it by filling several empty seats.

Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, announced he was resigning immediately for his role in the 2012 leak of confidential information on monetary policy which became the subject of an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr Lacker's fall came at the tail end of years of controversy that erupted after the economic research firm Medley Global Advisors learned the contents of a Fed meeti…