The confirmation of Nobel-Prize winning economist Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserver Board has been held up since he was nominated in April of last year, and now after lingering for so long in the confirmation process, Peter Diamond has withdrawn his nomination and released the following statement:
We should all worry about how distorted the confirmation process has become, and how little understanding of monetary policy there is among some of those responsible for its Congressional oversight. We need to preserve the independence of the Fed from efforts to politicize monetary policy and to limit the Fed’s ability to regulate financial firms.
Concern about the (seemingly low) current risk of future inflation should not erase concern about the large costs of continuing high unemployment. Concern about the distant risk of a genuine inability to handle our national debt should not erase concern about the risk to the economy from too much short-run fiscal tightening. [...]
Skilled analytical thinking should not be drowned out by mistaken, ideologically driven views that more is always better or less is always better. I had hoped to bring some of my own expertise and experience to the Fed. Now I hope someone else can.
Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee who has been the primary culprit in withholding confirmation, deemed Peter Diamond, a Nobel-winning economist and a man who personally aided Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with his doctoral dissertation, "too unqualified" to set economic policy.
If he isn't qualified, who is?
Of course the reason Shelby claims Diamond is unqualified is because he was nominated by President Obama. I'm sure if a Republican president nominated a Fox Business Channel contributor to the Federal Reserve Board, Senator Richard Shelby wouldn't have anything to say.
via ThinkProgress