The Supreme Court has a vacancy. The Federal Reserve has three. Anyone notice?

[Joanne98]

By Matthew Yglesias
Sunday, April 18, 2010

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn declared on March 1 that he was planning to retire. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens did the same on April 9. Both are important men doing important jobs for important institutions that exert vast influence over the lives of Americans. Stevens's announcement was treated as a big deal by politicians, interest groups and the media. Kohn's? Not so much.

After the Stevens announcement, pundits leapt into a frenzy of speculation about possible nominees. Will President Obama pick Elena Kagan or Diane Wood or someone else? Will he use the nomination to rally his political base? And will Republicans filibuster? For all the words spilled on the subject, though, absolutely nobody considered the possibility that Stevens's seat would stay vacant.

Kohn's retirement, on the other hand, came nowhere close to dominating headlines. Soon after the announcement, word went out that Obama would probably pick Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Chairman Janet Yellen to replace him -- but the nomination hasn't been made. Nobody has asked Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, whether he might move to block Yellen's nomination. Nobody has breathlessly speculated about dark-horse candidates. Nobody has put the chairman and ranking member of the Senate banking committee on "Meet the Press" to debate prospective Fed nominees, the way Pat Leahy and Jeff Sessions of the Judiciary Committee talked about Stevens's slot. Pressure groups aren't raising money off the prospect of a Yellen nomination, and nonspecialists aren't expected to have an opinion of her.

But as little attention as Kohn's replacement has gotten, even less has been given to the two seats on the seven-member Fed Board that have been unfilled since before Obama's inauguration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041602025.html

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Well, the difference there is....

Stevens should be replaced by a Liberal. Kohn should be replaced by nobody.

The Supreme Court is (or at least used to be) a constitutional branch of government, the "federal" reserve never was. Just abolish that useless shit.

[Demeter]

2. Obama is a Know-Nothing About Economics

and with Goldman Sachs blowing up today, he's going to have no one to advise him. Which is better than depending on con men and crooks, IMO.

I agree. Dead the Fed. Put it out of our misery.