Gary Cohn
Gary Cohn is the least qualified of the five candidates. He has no experience in monetary policy or macroeconomic theory for that matter, having built his career as a Goldman Sachs commodities floor trader and rising through the ranks to become the bank’s president. His close ties to the president were the primary source of market suspicion that he was a favorite for the job. But the relationship has since grown cold, and he’s now seen as an unlikely pick.
John Taylor
John Taylor, a Stanford economist and ex-Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, is always on the Republican list of potential Fed chairs, but never gets the job. The same is likely to happen this time around. Taylor’s appointment would be highly disruptive to financial markets given his repeatedly hawkish record on monetary policy, which has called for substantially higher interest rates despite below-target inflation.
Kevin Warsh
Warsh’s appointment to the Fed’s board in 2006 was seen as controversial due to his youth and lack of experience. As a governor, Warsh was an ally of ex-chairman Ben Bernanke in dealing with Wall Street during the 2008 financial crisis, but he was also deeply critical of the Fed’s bond buying program, even though he repeatedly voted to approve it. Warsh was also very wrong about the risk of imminent inflation from the Fed’s actions. In reality, the central bank continues to undershoot its 2% inflation goal some nine years into the recovery.
Source: Business Insider India