More than 40 former Federal Reserve officials blasted President Donald Trump’s nominee for a key central bank position, calling her views “extreme and ill-considered,” and urging the Senate to reject her nomination.
In a letter, the Fed alumni said the nominee, Judy Shelton, “has a decades-long record of writings and statements that call into question her fitness for a spot on the Fed’s Board of Governors,” citing her advocacy for a return to the gold standard and her questioning of the need for the central bank to even exist.
The Senate banking committee already approved Shelton in July, 13-12 along party lines, for a spot on the Fed’s Board of Governors. She’s now awaiting approval by the full Senate.
Shelton has previously attacked the Fed’s independence, calling the central bank “almost a rogue agency” in 2011. And this comes at a time that the president himself has been critical of the central bank.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who has been mostly praised for his response to the 2020 economic crisis, was also a Trump pick, though a far less controversial one.
The Fed has a lot of work ahead to get the country through the pandemic recession and the economy back on track.
The former Fed officials’ letter said while they welcome “a diversity of viewpoints,” that “Ms. Shelton’s views are so extreme and ill-considered as to be an unnecessary distraction from the tasks at hand.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misquoted Judy Shelton's 2011 statement about the Federal Reserve.
