By Craig Torres and Jeanna Smialek
Bloomberg News
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) The president plans to nominate Nellie Liang, a Ph.D. economist who ran the Fed’s financial stability unit until her retirement last year.
Bloomberg News
The White House’s latest pick for the Federal Reserve Board was deliberately chosen for her financial stability expertise and knowledge of the Fed system to round out a board of monetary policy experts and Wall-Street savvy lawyers.
President Donald Trump plans to nominate Nellie Liang, a Ph.D. economist who ran the Fed’s financial stability unit until her retirement last year. It’s a timely choice as some credit markets are showing signs of aggressive risk-taking.
Liang’s long study of that topic was a key factor in the winning the nod, according to a person familiar with the matter. The news of her intended nomination broke Sept. 20.
Financial conditions are heating up with some credit markets showing signs of overheating. The Fed’s gradual pace of interest rate increases, combined with low interest rates globally, has supported a reach for yield that has weakened standards among some lenders.
The market for leveraged loans, a higher-risk type of corporate lending, now tops $1 trillion, for example. With the last two recessions triggered by financial bubbles, the Trump administration saw Liang as the missing piece the Fed needed.
