Obama nominates two for Fed board

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- President Obama Tuesday nominated one Washington insider and one academic to serve on the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Obama tapped former Undersecretary of the Treasury for Finance Jerome Powell and Harvard University economics Professor Jeremy Stein, the White House said in a statement.

"I am grateful that these individuals have agreed to serve their nation at this important time for our economy," Obama said, pointing to "their distinguished backgrounds and experience coupled with their impressive knowledge of economic and monetary policy."

Powell is currently a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. He worked in the Treasury under former President George H.W. Bush with responsibility for policy on financial institutions and treasury debt, the statement said.

Prior to that, Powell worked as an investment banker and attorney in New York.

Stein is currently the Moise Y. Safra professor of economics at Harvard University. Prior to Harvard, Stein, before 2000, was on the finance faculty at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management for 10 years.

The nominations have to be approved by the U.S. Senate. Obama has had mixed responses to his nominations for the Fed board. His nomination of Nobel Prize-winner Peter Diamond ran into opposition and was withdrawn. However, his nominations of Janet Yellen and Sarah Bloom Raskin were confirmed.