Source: Trump to meet with Yellen to discuss Fed job

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a second term as head of the central bank, a source familiar with the administration's Fed search said Monday.

Trump has said Yellen is one of several candidates he is considering for the Fed's top job. Yellen's current term ends on Feb. 3.

Trump met with Stanford University economics professor John Taylor last week. He interviewed former Fed board member Kevin Warsh and current Fed board member Jerome Powell late last month. Trump has also said economics adviser Gary Cohn is being considered.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that the president hopes to have a decision on the Fed position within a month.

Yellen, the first woman to head the nation's central bank, was sharply criticized by Trump during the campaign as being too political in the way she handled the Fed job. Trump said she was keeping interest rates low to favor Democrats. But since taking office, Trump has not criticized Yellen and has instead praised her, saying she's "done a good job" and favors low interest rates as he does.

In addition to the top position, Trump has several other vacancies to fill on the Fed board.

Utah financier Randal Quarles, Trump's first Fed nomination, was sworn in on Friday. Quarles will fill the key job of vice chairman for supervision, the Fed's top policy job for overseeing banking regulations.

But as Quarles was joining the board, Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer was stepping down. That leaves the seven-member board with three vacancies, the same number of openings it has had for most of this year.