Trump nominates economist Marvin Goodfriend for Fed governor post

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated economist Marvin Goodfriend for the post of governor of the Federal Reserve Board.

The White House sent the nomination to the Senate late Wednesday for its approval to fill a place on the seven-seat board of governors who set interest rates and play key roles in banking regulations together with 12 presidents of the regional Reserve Banks.

Goodfriend, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was senior economic advisor at the Reagan administration and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

A well-respected economist, Goodfriend has criticized the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities and welcomes strengthened oversight over the central bank. But he supports using negative interest rates to stimulate economy in face of crisis.

Goodfriend was Trump's third nominee to the central bank. Earlier this month, Trump nominated current Fed governor Jerome Powell to replace Fed chair Janet Yellen whose term expires in February 2018.

Trump has already filled one of the Fed governor posts. Randal Quarles, a top Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush administration, took office last month as the Fed' s vice chairman for bank supervision.

As Yellen decided to leave the Fed board once the new chair swears in, Trump needs to fill three board governor vacancies in addition to Goodfriend' s nomination. Enditem