Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida reacts as he holds his phone during the three-day “Challenges for Monetary Policy” conference in Jackson Hole
Reuters
- Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida said Monday he plans to resign on Friday.
- The resignation arrives two weeks earlier than anticipated and amid scrutiny over his 2020 stock trades.
- Government disclosures showed Clarida trading stock funds before a key Fed announcement in 2020.
Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida will step down from his position on Friday — two weeks earlier than planned — amid fresh scrutiny around stock trades made early in the pandemic.
While the Fed’s announcement didn’t state a reason for Clarida’s early departure, the move comes after Clarida landed in hot water for early 2020 stock trades. October disclosures showed him piling cash into stock funds on February 27, 2020, one day before the Fed hinted at possible policy action to aid the US economy. The central bank rolled out unprecedented policy supports weeks later that spurred economic activity and helped financial markets rebound through 2020.
Clarida faced backlash again in early January after updated disclosures shed more light on the trades. The corrected documents showed Clarida pulling cash out of stocks on February 24, 2020 before pushing money into stock funds three days later. The Fed first described the February 27 trades as appropriate “rebalancing,” but the in-and-out trades raised new questions around the trading activity. The New York Times first reported on the revised disclosures.
The vice chair is now slated to resign on Friday instead of his term’s expiration date on January 31.
“Rich’s contributions to our monetary policy deliberations, and his leadership of the Fed’s first-ever public review of our monetary policy framework, will leave a lasting impact in the field of central banking,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a statement.
Serving on the central bank’s board of directors was “a distinct honor and immense privilege,” Clarida told President Joe Biden in a Monday letter.
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