Why Diversity Matters at the Fed

January 18, 2022

The gist:

Biden is delivering on his promise “to make the Fed more diverse” when “last week named Sarah Bloom Raskin and Lisa Cook for slots on the powerful panel. If confirmed “Bloom, Raskin and Cook will join Lael Brainard, a governor Biden has tapped to step up to vice chair, and Michelle Bowman on the board.” Two posts will be held by men, “Chair Jerome Powell and Christopher Waller hold the other positions.”

Cook and Jefferson would be “the first Black woman and fourth Black man respectively to serve on the board.”

It’s "virtually impossible to argue against better balance among policymakers and to have “the Fed look more like the American population it sets monetary policy for.

For example, former Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke cited studies that showed in 2010, “women account for 80% of all consumer-expenditure decisions in the U.S., making 93% of food purchases and 65% of auto buys.”

“Because women engage in more of the family shopping, they are consistently aware of price changes and inflation…women running households know just what it takes to make the budget stretch.”

—fFrmer Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke

How else will our National monetary policy be formed if “its decisions will be shaped by people with different viewpoints and experiences.”

Photo: Janet Yellen, NYTConnect with the Bloomberg Opinion post here.