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Monday, January 12, 2009
Kroszner to Leave the Federal Reserve Board
Matt Egan
FOXBusiness
Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner announced on Monday his plans to resign a day after President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office.
Kroszner, 46, joined the Federal Reserve Board in March 2006 and plans to return to the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago to take a newly created chaired professorship.
“The challenges and issues we have confronted have been unprecedented. I am particularly pleased with our accomplishments in monetary policy, innovative liquidity facilities, banking and financial regulatory policy, and in strengthening consumer protection,” Kroszner wrote in his resignation letter to President George W. Bush.
He added, “It has been a great honor to serve my country as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.”
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, credited Kroszner with overseeing the completion of new regulations protecting mortgage borrowers and credit card customers.
"Randy's contributions to the Federal Reserve and his country during his nearly three years at the board have been invaluable," Bernanke said in a statement. "We have greatly benefited from the intellectual rigor he brought to the consideration of both monetary and regulatory policy."
Kroszner’s resignation gives Obama a chance to influence the Federal Reserve Board by making his own appointment following his inauguration on January 20.
Federal Reserve governors are appointed to 14-year terms by the president and are subject to Senate confirmation. The Federal Reserve Board oversees Federal Reserve Banks and establishes monetary policy such as those on interest rates.
The Federal Reserve Board has signed off on many of Bernanke’s unprecedented actions during the current credit crisis, including the rescue of Citigroup (C) and sale of collapsed lender Wachovia to Wells Fargo (WFC).
The Fed has also voted to slash interest rates to the lowest levels on record in an effort to bring the year-long recession to an end.
Kroszner served as a professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s business school from 1999 until 2006. He also served as a visiting scholar at various organizations, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the IMF, the London School of Economics and the American Enterprise Institute, a free-market think tank.
Also prior to his stint on the Federal Reserve Board, Kroszner was a member of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2001 until 2003.
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Most folks judge the health of a business by the revenue that comes in through sales. But not all revenue is equal. Companies can grow their sales by buying other companies, which means you don't get a clear view of how the real sales trends are moving.
So, many analysts, particularly those who look at retail, try to gauge what¿s known as "organic" growth, by looking at same-store sales. These are sales only at outlets open more than a year, so the metric can exclude any sales jump that comes from opening new locations. Retailers release same-store sales (which are frequently called "comps" since they're a true comparison from the previous period) every month.
Retail, incidentally, isn't the only industry to look at same-store sales. Hospital companies, also use the metric, to gauge how existing hospitals are performing compared to ones they just built or acquired.
