As major central bankers meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Surveillance was talking about who is going to replace Bernanke as the head of the Federal Reserve. I especially like the way that Sallie Krawcheck discusses the Fed selection process in this video. Julianna Goldman makes good points on why President Obama is more comfortable with Summers and seems to looking for every way to get him in the role despite the negative media response to the possibility. Take a look.
P.S. – My own view here is that this should be Yellen’s job to lose as she is the obvious candidate and eminently qualified. Gender is a big issue here because Yellen is so qualified yet Obama looks to want to pass her over. I believe the President is going to lose a lot of political support if he nominates someone like Summers instead of Yellen, especially in the wake of the NSA scandal, which has sapped his support amongst young people.
They also discussed the US financial services industry in general. And Krawcheck said she doesn’t like to hear bank and bear market together in the same sentence when it comes to bonds because banks hold large bond inventories. This is definitely a related issue because the next Fed chair will not only conduct monetary policy which affects those rates, but will also have a hand in the regulation of the industry if the risk-on qe-induced leveraged bets of today go pear-shaped.
Also see: Larry Summers Decided to ‘Take Off the Gloves’ in Fed Chair Campaign