US bank CEOs voice support for independent Fed, decline to discuss Moore, Cain appointments
U.S. bank executives on Wednesday largely declined to weigh in on President Trump's expected nominations of Stephen Moore and Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve board, instead voicing support for the independence of the central bank.
"This is not a traditional choice. I don’t personally know him,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told the House Financial Services Committee said of Moore in response to a line of questioning from Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va.
Dimon previously said the two candidates don't seem “to be the right people to put on the Fed.” Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, among the other panelists, declined to discuss the potential nominations.
"I believe in the independence and integrity of the Fed… I also believe in the role of the legislative body to properly vet candidates,” Gorman told the committee.
While Trump has said he will nominate Cain and Moore, the formal paperwork has not yet been submitted to the Senate. Critics say the White House is seeking to politicize the Fed with the picks.
Among other things, Moore has voiced support for the U.S. to return to the gold standard, under which each dollar is backed by gold, a position that Dimon, Gorman and Solomon, along with Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, State Street Corp. CEO Ronald O’Hanley and Bank of New York Mellon CEO Charles Scharf all opposed on Wednesday.
Cain, who is a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Godfather's Pizza CEO and one-time GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, has also backed the gold standard.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPM | JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. | 224.16 | -0.01 | -0.00% |
| C | CITIGROUP INC. | 63.27 | -0.28 | -0.44% |
| MS | MORGAN STANLEY | 117.78 | -0.53 | -0.44% |
| BAC | BANK OF AMERICA CORP. | 42.20 | -0.10 | -0.22% |
Moore previously called on current Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to resign , though he has since walked back the comments, and he has criticized last year’s interest rate hikes as blunting the impact of the GOP-led tax cuts.
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Earlier on Wednesday, Moore said he would be a “growth hawk” if appointed to the Fed.
“We want wage increases, I want workers to be better off but I’ve said repeatedly when I get at the Fed I’m going to be the growth hawk there,” he told FOX Business. “I’m one of these people, I don’t believe in secular stagnation, it’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.”