BizJournals Portfolio
Home >   Business Views, Opinions and Blogs >   Business Blogs >   Market Movers >  

The Fed Chairman Always Votes With The Majority

Market Movers

by Yves Smith and Felix Salmon
Main
How to Improve Mortgage Disclosures   The Art Trading Fund: Still Doomed to Fail

Recent Blog Posts

Links

Jun 25 2007 12:00am EDT

The Fed Chairman Always Votes With the Majority

The Economist has a great post up today on a key difference between the UK and US central banks: in the UK, it's perfectly fine for the governor of the Bank of England to be in the minority when a vote is taken on interest rates. In the US, if the chairman of the Federal Reserve ever found himself voting in the minority, it's expected that he would resign.

"Losing occasionally doesn’t do the governor’s credibility any harm," notes the blog. "In fact, it may do the opposite." So why the need for the Fed chairman always to be in the majority? I can't think of a single good reason, and in fact I'm having difficulty even coming up with bad reasons. Can someone explain the US system to me?

. □

blog comments powered by Disqus
Real Business, Real Results
Out of the 'Family'

Did anyone at Microsoft ever watch the (gasp!) offensively funny show Family Guy?

Cruz Missile Lands

Ex-Morgan Stanley exec Zoe Cruz is now heading her own hedge fund. Are Wall Street's leaders done?

Scandal Chic

Martha, Bernie and Skilling know that what you wear for court can go a long way in public perception.

spotlight on

Health Care

Bad to the Bone No More

Companies such as General Mills say they're stepping up efforts to change employees' bad behavior and promote healthier lifestyles. Read More