A look at the Fed’s likely next No 2

PHILIP Jefferson, an economist who joined the Federal Reserve’s board of governors in May 2022, was nominated by President Biden on Friday (May 12) to be its vice-chair. I didn’t write about his appointment last year; his proposed elevation gives me a second chance to discuss his ideas. There’s more to chew on now: The Fed website has six speeches he’s given since joining the board on such topics as inflation, inclusive economic growth and technology’s impact on the post-pandemic economy.

Jefferson grew up in the Kingman Park neighbourhood of Washington, DC, where “the line between a future of success or struggle was thin”, he said at his confirmation hearing. He became a Fed staff economist, a professor and then the vice-president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina. On the Fed board of governors, he is considered a centrist. “He has built a reputation as an inquisitive listener with an interest in staff economic research,” my news colleague Jeanna Smialek wrote on Friday.

(Biden also nominated Adriana Kugler to the board of governors. A Colombian American economist who is on leave from Georgetown University to serve as the US-appointed executive director of the World Bank, she would be the first Hispanic person on the Fed board.)