Author Archive

Lawrence R. Jacobs

Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance in the Hubert H. Humphrey School and the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota.

Photo credit: Futureatlas.com (Flickr:CC BY-NC 2.0)

Last week, likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton committed her presidential campaign to the push by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other congressional progressives to make, as a spokesperson noted, the Federal Reserve “more representative of America as a whole.” These reformers insist that the Federal Reserve will be more publicly accountable if its governing boards, which are currently dominated by white men from the financial and corporate sectors, included more women, people of color as well as labor and consumer voices. A more accountable Fed would be good for both the financial markets and the nation as a whole. But changing who sits on the Fed’s regional bank boards will not be enough to avert the next financial crisis. And make no mistake, without …