One Republican senator is blocking a Nobel Prize winner from MIT from an appointment to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Sen. Richard Shelby says Peter Diamond, who won the economics prize with two other academics for pioneering research on the causes of joblessness, is not qualified to deal with monetary policy at the Fed level, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Fed nominee Peter Diamond wins Nobel Prize for economics Diamond was nominated by President Obama earlier this year to serve as one of the central bank's top officers, but the Senate must yet confirm the appointment and Shelby, for one, is standing in the way. "While the Nobel Prize for Economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System," Shelby said in a statement.
Obama on Monday congratulated Diamond and his colleagues for "groundbreaking research that has applications in a wide range of areas." Noting his nomination to the Fed, the president said, "I hope he will be confirmed by the Senate as quickly as possible." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was more to the point, blaming a "partisan minority" in the Senate for the delay. "Obstructing a nominee as well-qualified as Peter in a time of economic crisis is a harmful attempt to score political points that hurt our middle class and our broader economic recovery," Gibbs said.
Diamond won the Nobel with Northwestern University's Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics.