Trump considering Stephen Moore, Herman Cain for Fed board: sources

[WASHINGTON] Stephen Moore, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a long-time supporter of Donald Trump, is being considered by the president for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Mr Moore, 59, was the founder of the conservative Club for Growth and served on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He was a senior economist on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and was an economic analyst for CNN.

Also under consideration for the board is Herman Cain, the former pizza company executive who ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing Trump's private deliberations.

There are two vacant seats on the Fed board.

Mr Moore, who didn't immediately return a phone message, is a close friend of White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Mr Moore was an adviser on Trump's campaign and helped write its economic agenda.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve declined to comment. The White House also declined to comment.

Bloomberg News previously reported that Mr Cain, 73, was under consideration. Yet his nomination would raise the prospect of a Senate confirmation hearing focused on the sexual harassment accusations that ended his presidential campaign. While he remains in the running, there are concerns in the White House about whether he could clear the confirmation process, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr Cain last September co-founded a pro-Trump super-political action committee, America Fighting Back PAC, which features a photo of the president on its website and says: "We must protect Donald Trump and his agenda from impeachment."

He has had a long corporate career, and from 1992 to 1996 he served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, as well as deputy chairman and later chairman. He advocated for the US to return to the gold standard during his presidential campaign and as recently as December 2017 defended higher interest rates, a position that contrasts with Trump's repeated criticisms of the Fed last year.

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