dChan
Anonymous ID: 8e2d01 Jan. 18, 2020, 6:26 a.m. No.7845816   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>5849 >>5910 >>5924 >>6062 >>6285 >>6310

POTUS' Fed pick Judy Shelton faces obstacles to confirmation

 

The White House said this week that President Trump intends to nominate economists Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to Fed governorships. While Waller is likely to face easy confirmation, Shelton’s prospects are less clear.

One question she will have to clear is residency. Two governors cannot come from the same district.

Speculation also has swirled over whether Shelton may be Trump’s pick for chair after Jerome Powell’s term expires.

that is the sole reason for nominating her imo.

 

President Donald Trump’s intention to nominate economist Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve comes with two pressing questions — whether she could be a future chair at the central bank, and if she even will be able to serve if confirmed.

 

The first is largely a political question and would only come into play if Trump continues to be dissatisfied with Chairman Jerome Powell and chooses not to renominate him when his term expires in 2022.

 

The second, though, is a sticky legal question and centers around a provision in the Federal Reserve Act that prohibits two governors from the same district. Governor Lael Brainard hails from the same Richmond region, though it’s not clear that there wouldn’t be a way around the rule. In an announcement Wednesday, the White House said Trump plans on sending Shelton’s name to the Senate, along with that of fellow economist Christopher Waller of Missouri, whose nomination is expected to face few obstacles.

 

Selgin pointed specifically to former governors Elizabeth Duke (2008-12) and Sarah Raskin (2010-14), both of whom also were from the Richmond district, which encompasses Washington, D.C.

 

A Fed spokesman referred the issue to the White House, which declined comment. Shelton did not respond to a request for comment.

 

The Federal Reserve Act states that “In selecting the members of the Board, not more than one of whom shall be selected from any one Federal Reserve district, the President shall have due regard to a fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests, and geographical divisions of the country.” One strategy that could be employed is if Shelton had a residence elsewhere. A White House release Wednesday stated that she is from Virginia, though she could be named to represent another district.

 

On the political issue, speculation has been growing that Shelton would be a strong contender for the chair position should Trump not renominate Powell. The president has been a fierce critic of Powell for the chairman’s lead in raising interest rates four times in 2018 and for rolling back the trillions of dollars in asset purchases instituted by his predecessors.

 

Shelton’s record on interest rates is somewhat complicated — she has criticized both the near-zero rates instituted during and for several years after the financial crisis, and the more recent moves to raise rates. Trump has pushed the Fed to cut rates and even urged the central bank to look at the negative rates pervasive in parts of Europe. Shelton also has spoken in favor of returning to the gold standard that backs the issuance of U.S. dollars, and opposes the practice of paying interest on reserves that banks store at the Fed.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/17/trump-fed-pick-judy-shelton-faces-obstacles-to-confirmation.html

Anonymous ID: 8e2d01 Jan. 18, 2020, 6:39 a.m. No.7845872   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>5910 >>6062 >>6285 >>6310

Libyan Oil Exports Blocked Ahead of Berlin Peace Conference

 

Libya declares Force Majeure as output cut by 800,000 barrels. Germany hosting conference aimed at ending country’s civil war.

 

Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar blocked oil exports at ports under his control, slashing output by more than half and posing a potential setback for an international conference on Sunday that aims to broker an end to a civil war in the OPEC nation.

 

As a result of the blockage of ports in the central and eastern parts of the country, oil output will fall by about 800,000 barrels a day, costing $55 million daily, the National Oil Corp. said in a statement on Saturday. The NOC declared Force Majeure, which can allow Libya, which holds Africa’s largest-proven oil reserves, to legally suspend delivery contracts. The show of force comes as Haftar prepares to attend an international conference in Berlin hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel where the general will face pressure to agree to a cease-fire. Haftar, whose troops have been bogged down in the southern suburbs of the capital of Tripoli, has so far refused efforts to end his offensive and agree to a compromise. The ports closure is an attempt by Haftar to condition the negotiations in Berlin,” said Arturo Varvelli, head of the Rome office and a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “It could be counterproductive as it could make the Europeans, who are the largest consumers of Libyan oil, very upset.”

 

By shutting down the oil fields, Haftar is denying a key source of revenue to the internationally elected government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. Funds from oil production go the country’s central bank and have been used by Tripoli to buy weapons for its defense.

 

An earlier round of peace talks held in Russia this week broke down after Haftar rejected a proposed truce agreement that had already been signed by Sarraj. The commander abandoned Moscow early Tuesday after refusing to stamp the deal that had been brokered by Russia and Turkey, which supports Sarraj’s government. Russian mercenaries back Haftar’s forces, as do Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Former colonial power Italy also has a military training mission numbering several hundred troops in the country. Turkish soldiers are training forces loyal to Sarraj, and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have also joined the fray.

 

Russia and Turkey, which have assumed increasingly assertive roles in the Libyan conflict as they jockey for influence in the Mediterranean, brought Libya’s feuding leaders to the talks after concluding their intervention in the country was too costly.

 

Haftar will face additional pressure at the Berlin conference. Apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will also be on hand.

https://www.bloomberg.com//news/articles/2020-01-18/libya-declares-force-majeure-as-haftar-s-army-blocks-oil-exports