Senate confirms Christopher Waller to serve on Fed's board

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed the nomination of Christopher Waller for the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, placing another of President Donald Trump's picks on the Fed's influential board after a string of high-profile rejections.

The vote in favor of Waller was 48-47. Waller, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, taught economics for nearly 25 years before joining the St. Louis Fed in 2009. He has endured far less scrutiny than Judy Shelton, the controversial nominee he was paired with and who was voted down in the Senate last month.

Still, Waller's confirmation vote in the full Senate broke down along party lines, a shift from the vote in the Senate Banking Committee in July, when some Democrats had supported him.

As an executive vice president of the St. Louis Fed, Waller has attended dozens of meetings of the Fed’s interest rate-setting policy committee, of which he will now become a voting member. His research has focused on how the Fed’s communications affect financial markets and on the benefits of an independent central bank. His term on the board will last until January 2030.

Waller, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from Washington State University, has taught at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Kentucky and Indiana University.

Waller is a top aide to James Bullard, the president of the the St. Louis Fed, who is a well-known “dove.” Doves are policymakers who are generally thought to favor lower interest rates to help boost job growth and who tend to worry less about the risk of inflation. Those who concern themselves more with the threat of inflation, by contrast, are referred to as “hawks.”

Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Chicago-based Northern Trust, and a former Fed economist, suggested that Waller's economic tilt...