It will be tough to fill the shoes of Stan Fischer as Fed vice-chair. The candidates most actively under consideration by the Administration, to serve as number 2 to Jay Powell (who has just been confirmed as Chair), are Rich Clarida, Larry Lindsey, and John Williams. Clarida and Williams are both excellent economists; either one would be great for this job.
Oct. 30, 2017 — There has been speculation that after Trump picks one of the five candidates to be chair of the Federal Reserve (with Jay Powell now apparently the front-runner), he could pick another one of them to be Vice-chair. This latter position is the one that, sadly, Stanley Fischer is now vacating.
I hope that Trump asks Janet Yellen to be Vice-chair, assuming he breaks precedent and does not re-nominate her for Chair, and I hope she accepts.
October 29, 2017 — The Trump Administration has said it will announce its choice for the new Chair of the Federal Reserve Board by November 3. Subject to Senate confirmation, the chosen candidate will succeed Janet Yellen, whose term ends February 3.
The White House has said it views five candidates as front runners. Two are eminent economists with unusually impressive records — both in academic research, mostly at West Coast universities, and as practitioners of macroeconomic policy. That would be Yellen herself, who is a strong candidate for reappointment, and Stanford’s John Taylor. The other three front-runners are not professionally trained as economists, but rather come from financial backgrounds: Gary Cohn, Jerome Powell, and Kevin Warsh. They worked, respectively, for Goldman Sachs, Dillon Read, and Morgan Stanley; all three also have important government experience.