But Sanders also recognizes that, in the race for the Fed chairmanship, progressives should have a contender. Or, perhaps, two.
"As you consider whom to nominate as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, I urge you to consider someone who will put the needs of the disappearing middle class ahead of the interests of Wall Street and the wealthy few," Sanders wrote to the president. "There are a number of excellent candidates who are capable of doing that. Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich are just two names that come to mind."
The reality is that, while the names of Stiglitz and Reich come quickly to the mind of Sanders and other progressives, they may not be at the top of the White House list. But they should be. On the immediate issue of Detroit, Reich has written brilliantly on the importance of recognizing, "in an era of widening inequality," that the real question is whether Americans are going to "(write) off the poor" who reside in urban America. On the broader question of the economy, Stiglitz is arguing that "so-called 'free trade' talks should be in the public, not corporate interest|Joseph Stiglitz."
Those are not ideas that are now at the center of the discussion about who should head the Fed.
But they should be.
And they can be.
This is the point of treating the race for the Fed chairmanship as an election, rather than an anointment.
By putting Stiglitz and Reich in the running, Sanders invites organized labor, economic justice and urban policy groups to join the debate. By highlighting the progressive economic approaches advanced by Stiglitz and Reich, as an alternative to those advanced by Larry Summers, they expand the understanding of what the Fed can and should do -- for Detroit, for cities across the country and for neglected rural communities.
The debate is essential.
A quarter century ago, my colleague William Greider wrote the groundbreaking book: Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (Simon & Schuster). The Fed still operates behind veils of secrecy. Most Americans do not know what it does and, more critically, what it can do.
Treating the race for Fed head as a race, as a real campaign, invites citizens into the process.
Urging the selection of Stiglitz or Reich might not lead to the actual choice of a progressive-populist as Fed chair. But it could turn the tide against Summers. It might help Yellen. And it would almost certainly create pressure on whoever takes charge of the Fed to recognize and embrace the full potential of the Federal Reserve.
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