FOMC Member Cheat Sheet

Print these images out and tape them to your desk.

Our first regular post had to be about the Federal Reserve. No group of individuals moves markets as they do. Sorting through the muck of interviews and Fed speak often seems fruitless. In reality, the Fed is testing positions, seeing what sticks, and using that feedback to tune their opinions. The Editor spent the past 20 years interpreting not only the Fed but other central banks around the world. To greatly over-simplify our analysis of the Fed members, we present the Heft Rating.

The Heft rating scores each FOMC voting and alternate member by their Economic, Real World, Legal, and Public Policy experience. It then adds those scores to the tenure of each member divided by 2. The concept is we give some degree of heft for time served as well as our own completely biased view as to the pedigree and experience of the members.

A lot of work has been done on what Members are Dove or Hawks. But, in today’s inflationary environment, that has less meaning. We care more about who studied economics, who is judged by their peers as exceptional, and who the market cares about.

Here are a few of our notes on each member.

Finally, while we doubt the Fed has any real political bias, should it arise, we are tracking who appointed each member.