After a series of rigorous interviews, some lasting as long as two hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has winnowed down the list of candidates for Federal Reserve chair to five from 11, and that person could be nominated to the Fed — though not necessarily as chair — by January.
According to senior Treasury officials, the remaining list of candidates includes two sitting Fed officials — Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller — along with Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder.
The Treasury plans to hold another round of interviews with all five candidates in the coming weeks and months. The interviews will be led by Bessent and include two senior Treasury officials and two senior White House officials.
With Bessent focused on the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington next week and then traveling to Asia with President Donald Trump on an extended trip, officials said the interview process might not be wrapped up until after Thanksgiving.
The secretary then intends to send a smaller list to Trump, who will make the final decision. It is likely, however, that this person will first be nominated to be a Fed governor and then nominated later to be Fed chair.
The reason is outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May, sits in a governor’s seat that has only two years remaining. The seat of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, now occupied by Stephen Miran, has a term that ends in January and would allow the new Fed chair to be nominated to a seat with a full 14-year governor’s term.
But the officials said that strategy was not decided and there were other possibilities.
The president has already named Warsh, Hassett and Waller as finalists for the job, so only Rieder and Bowman would be new recommendations to the White House.
Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York City on Sept. 28, 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Compared with previous administrations, the Trump administration has been running a more open process for the next Fed chair, announcing candidates as the list grows and, now, shrinks.
At the same time, the administration, led by the president himself, has been highly critical of Fed policy, repeatedly urging it to lower rates sharply. The president had threatened to remove Powell and actually fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud, accusations she denies.
Cook’s firing has been blocked by lower courts, and the case will be heard in January by the Supreme Court. The attempts to oust Cook have raised concerns about the administration’s commitment to Fed independence, raising the stakes for the new chair appointment and making it a closely followed decision.
BlackRock’s Rieder impresses
The Treasury officials also for the first time provided some insight into Bessent’s thinking about the criteria used to decide who to pick for the job.
Bessent is said to be seeking someone who is open to new ideas about how to run the Fed and monetary policy, and has experience in economics, monetary policy, banking regulation and management.
The secretary recently penned an essay sharply critical of the Fed and called for reviews of the central bank’s policy, structure and mission.
Among his critiques was that the Fed had grown too big and experienced mission creep. That suggests he would prefer a candidate willing to pare down both the Fed’s size and roll back its use of some tools, especially quantitative easing.
The officials said no candidate was leading the pack, but they confirmed recent reports that Rieder had impressed Bessent.
Rieder, a frequent guest on CNBC, has been a well-known fixture on Wall Street for years. His analysis of the fixed income market and the Fed are widely read. He also manages a large department at BlackRock. While not decisive, the officials suggested it could be a plus that Rieder, alone among the five remaining candidates, has never worked at the Fed.
