The list of candidates for the toughest job in the financial world is set. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he has whittled an 11-person list of candidates to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell next year down to five relatively inside-the-box candidates that he’ll recommend to the president.
The nominee will face a high-wire act of placating the president (who wants steep interest rate cuts) while keeping the trust of investors worried about high inflation and political influence on the central bank. Everyone on the shortlist has to some degree backed Trump’s calls for steeper cuts to interest rates: current Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, top Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett, former Fed official Kevin Warsh, and BlackRock markets whisperer Rick Rieder.
Powell’s Fed is expected to cut interest rates by a modest quarter-point this week, but expect a push for a more robust cut from Trump’s newest appointee, Stephen Miran. The meeting will also give Waller and Bowman another chance to audition.