UPDATE: Waller was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Federal Reserve governor on Thursday.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank research director is set to be confirmed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Christopher Waller is projected to be confirmed as a Fed governor on Thursday after the U.S. Senate voted 50-45 in a procedural move on Wednesday to proceed to a final vote.
Waller serves as an executive vice president and as research director for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Arkansas falls under the St. Louis Fed’s territory. Waller’s specialty is macroeconomics.
He previously served as a professor and the Gilbert F. Schaefer Chair of Economics at the University of Notre Dame before joining the Fed in 2009. Before Notre Dame, he was the Carol Martin Gatton Chair of Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics at the University of Kentucky.
Waller holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bemidji State University, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate from Washington State University.
Currently, there are two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. Waller was nominated for the role by President Donald Trump. While Waller appears poised to join the board of governors, Trump’s other Fed pick, Judy Shelton, has not received support from a majority of the Senate.
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