List of Greenspan Replacements Grows

Washington, DC, July 25--Economist and author Todd Buchholz, an adviser to President George W. Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, is being considered by the White House for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, sources close to the administration said. Buchholz, who also served as a White House adviser under Bush's father, is under consideration for one of the two Fed seats the president will need to fill. University of Chicago economist Randall Kroszner, a member of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers from November 2001 to July 2003, is another candidate. The Fed's seven-member board forms the core of the central bank's interest-rate setting panel. The White House has drawn up a short list for the seat vacated in June when Ben Bernanke left the Fed to become chairman of the CEA, sources have said. A second spot will open in August when Fed Gov. Edward Gramlich is to step down. Kroszner and Buchholz are among those who have been interviewed for the Washington-based board. Former Treasury Department official Richard Clarida has been mentioned as a possible contender, too, but two sources said he was not on the short list. BusinessWeek Online, which reported on Thursday that Buchholz was in the running, also said Kevin Warsh of Bush's National Economic Council was being considered. The Financial Times said yet another possible candidate was Michael Dooley, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The White House has declined to comment on any of the names. Clarida and Buchholz declined to comment when contacted by Reuters, while Kroszner did not return phone calls. Associates of Dooley said there are reasons to believe he was under consideration. But he said he has not been interviewed or contacted by the White House. "My only indication of any of this has been from third parties," he said. Buchholz has experience in Washington politics and finance. He was a co-founder of Enso Capital Management, a managing director of Tiger Management Fund and former president of the G7 Group, an advisory firm that tracks policies that impact financial markets. Buchholz has written books offering a popularized take on economic issues. His latest one, "Bringing the Jobs Home," examines outsourcing. Its subtitle is "How the left created the outsourcing crisis -- and how we can fix it." Kroszner's expertise blends international finance and financial regulatory issues. Many analysts had thought Clarida's resume would make him a natural fit for the Fed. Clarida, who served as the top economist at the U.S. Treasury earlier in Bush's presidency, has done a lot of research related to monetary economics. Dooley, editor of the International Journal of Finance and Economics, has expertise in international economics. He has worked in the Fed's international finance division, at the International Monetary Fund and as chief economist for Latin America at Deutsche Bank. Dooley has argued the record U.S. current account deficit can likely be sustained for much longer than most economists had long thought. Warsh is an expert on financial regulatory matters, including oversight of mortgage market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Print the Article