Why Fed Nomination Fights Don’t Get Crazy

Jonathan Bernstein: “Partisanship isn’t entirely absent from Fed picks. Although President Joe Biden has renominated the (Republican) chair originally selected by former President Donald Trump, the rest of his current picks would all be unlikely choices for any Republican president. Still, there’s nothing like the current fighting over court confirmations. Nor, as political scientist Jonathan Ladd notes, do presidents try to maximize their influence over time by choosing nominees who will serve full 14-year terms.”

“I have two answers. One is that neither party has seen the need for a non-mainstream agenda for the Federal Reserve similar to the way that Democrats in the 1930s and Republicans since the 1960s have seen the need for a non-mainstream agenda for the courts… The second answer is based on the presidency. Presidents don’t have much immediate self-interest in who sits on the courts. They may care about certain policy outcomes, but the main way that judicial nominations affect their terms in office is through satisfying their party coalition.”