Turbulences ahead for the Fed with the new administration

The FOMC composition in 2017

In normal times, there are 12 voters at FOMC meetings (the last time they were 12 voters was in July 2013):

• 7 members in the Board of Governors
• the NY Fed’s president has a permanent seat
• 4 of the 11 Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.

Currently, there are only 5 members in the Board as the Senate blocked Obama’s appointments. Donald Trump will pick 2 Board members. There are also rumours of Daniel Tarullo’s retirement and in this case, Donald Trump would have to pick 3 Board members. Appointments will have to be confirmed by Senate.

The four voting Reserve Bank presidents in 2017 will be :

• Charles Evans, Chicago. He voted in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. He dissented twice (November and December 2011) as he wanted an easier monetary policy. He is going to be one of the most dovish voters in 2017. This being said, he declared on October 24th that he was in favor of the December 2016 hike and of 2 hikes in 2017 and 3 in 2018.
• Patrick Harker, Philadelphia. He has never voted. He is an academic. He describes himself as a hawk. Several times in 2016, he declared that 2 or 3 hikes in 2016 would be necessary. He will definitely be one most of the most hawkish FOMC members.
• Robert Kaplan, Dallas. He has never voted. He worked 23 years for Goldman Sachs and he describes himself as a specialist of financial markets. He often advocates patience when making monetary policy decisions. He is concerned by student debt and by demographic trends. He will probably vote in line with the Board.
• Neel Kashkari, Minneapolis. He has never voted. He was the Republican candidate for the 2014 California gubernatorial elections. He had contributed to the design of the TARP in 2008. He is against the Dodd-Franck act as he says that it would ‘miss the next crisis’ and he wants big banks to vastly increase equity capital holdings (to 15% of assets). Interestingly, even if Kashkari is a Republican, he is not in favor of a mechanical rule of monetary policy.