Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has announced that he will seek out Stephen Miran for four months to fill a vacancy while looking for a permanent position.
On Thursday, the president made his decision public.
Adriana Kugler, a Biden appointee who is stepping down on Friday, would take the place of Miran, the chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. Hugler will be rehiring as a Georgetown University tenured professor.
The Senate may approve the term until January 31, 2026. Trump claimed that the White House is still looking for candidates for the February 1 opening of the 14-year Fed board seat.
In the first Trump administration, Miran, who was an economic adviser to the Treasury, pushed for a radical change in the rules governing the Fed, including a ban on executive branch appointments, abolition of the “revolving door,” and nationalization of the Fed’s 12 regional banks.
Trump has the first chance to rein in his authority over the Fed, one of the few remaining independent federal agencies. Trump has repeatedly criticized Jerome Powell, the current chair, for maintaining the White House’s and the central bank’s ongoing dispute over short-term interest rates.
Trump’s income tax cuts and tariff increases have a strong following from Miran, who claims that the combination will result in enough economic growth to lower budget deficits. He has also minimized Powell’s concern that Trump’s tariffs will lead to higher inflation.
Trump has unsuccessfully pressed Fed policymakers to lower rates, including Powell, his six fellow board members, and the 12 Fed bank presidents. Even as a placeholder, Miran’s appointment to the central bank gives the president a potentially more direct route to achieving his wish for a simpler monetary policy.
Trump’s “loyalist”
However, it’s unclear how long Miran would spend working on his ideas at the Fed before even casting a vote on interest rates.
Senate confirmation of all Fed nominees requires a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, a vote by that committee advancing the nomination, and a number of floor votes before the full Senate, where Democrats have been stifling the approval process for Trump appointments.
Elizabeth Warren, the Senate Banking Committee’s top-ranking Democrat, said on X following the announcement that Stephen Miran is a “trump loyalist and one of the chief architects of the President’s chaotic tariff policy that has hurt Americans’ wallets. I’ll be asking him whether he would support Donald Trump or serve the American people.
The Senate will take a summer break until September 2 for that reason.
Before Miran’s term ends, there are only four policy-setting meetings, including one on September 16 and 17.
At their July meeting, Fed policymakers kept the policy rate at its current 4.25 percent to 4.5% range, with Powell citing a slightly higher inflation rate and the possibility that Trump’s tariffs could keep it that way as justifications.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply