Biden has a chance to pick a new kind of Fed chair

PRESIDENT Joe Biden will soon have an opportunity to appoint two new members of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors and renew or replace the chair and vice-chair. These officials regulate many of our financial institutions and play a central role in keeping prices in check and employment stable - no small order, especially amid the turbulent Covid-era economy.

With these appointments, the president can do more than pick someone who follows ethics rules to the letter - a problem that has plagued the Fed and Jerome Powell, the current chair. Biden can reshape the way we think about who should safeguard the national and global economies.

Tradition dictates that the ideal governor is impartial and not beholden to the big banks or captured by special interests. This sort of high technocrat lives and thinks in the language of high finance - a classic smart person.