More Fed coverage
    SAVE   |   EMAIL   |   PRINT   |   RSS  
Lindsey as Greenspan successor?
Report: White House looking beyond 3 favorites to succeed Fed chief next year.
August 4, 2005: 8:13 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The White House is expanding its search for a successor for Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, according to a published report Thursday, including former Bush adviser Lawrence Lindsey among the candidates.

Greenspan's term ends in January, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the White House wants to look beyond the three candidates mentioned frequently: Martin Feldstein of Harvard University, Glenn Hubbard, a former head of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors; and Ben Bernanke, who left the Fed to head the CEA earlier this year.

It reported the White House hasn't rejected the three candidates widely seen as favorites but that it doesn't want to limit its choice prematurely. There appears to be no clear favorite, according to the paper.

Lindsey is the architect of the tax cut plan President Bush ran on in 2000, but was one of a group of the economic advisors who observers said was forced out of his White House post in December 2002.

Lindsey angered some in the administration in September 2002 when he said that a war in Iraq could cost between $100 billion to $200 billion at a time when the administration was still trying to downplay the cost of a war that was still six months away.

Fed governor Donald Kohn, a former senior staffer at the central bank and a political independent, remains a favorite of the Fed staff, according to the paper. Some Fed watchers suggested earlier this year that Kohn is probably the candidate who is closest to Greenspan.

But the Journal reports that the president is unlikely to nominate anyone who isn't a Republican

The paper reports the White House has refused to publicly discuss the process out of concern that such speculation would weaken Greenspan during his remaining tenure.

Vice President Dick Cheney and National Economic Council Director Allan Hubbard are leading the search, one former administration official told the paper, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Budget Director Joshua Bolten are also involved.

For a look at a special report on the Federal Reserve, click here.  Top of page

graphic


YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Lawrence Lindsey
Alan Greenspan
Federal Reserve
Manage alerts | What is this?