With Janet Yellen now confirmed as Bernanke Mark 2, it is time to recall that in addition to a new Chairman, four of the Fed's voting members will also rotate. And while below is the latest preview of the voting FOMC members (previously 2011 [8]and 2012 [9]) ranked by Reuters in terms of their dovishness and hawiskness, the reality is that the peripheral Fed presidents (here we focus on the Hawks obviously) are nothing but figureheads whose only function is to be roundly ignored if and when they dissent with the new Chairman.
Which is why we will simply conclude with what we said roughly a year ago [9], which so far has turned out to be spot on: "the voting FOMC members are merely the supporting cast of the top three: Ben, Janet and Daniel, and at the end of the day, it is always about Bernanke. So while the FOMC may get one more borderline hawk, it is getting two more far more vocal doves, which likely means that at the end of the day, there will be zero change in the Fed's posture in 2013, which at the end of the day is always about one simple thing: i) injecting reserves into dealers so they can use the cash to fund prop trading, and ii) to monetize the US deficit. It also means that the 2013 run-rate of TSY and MBS monetization of $1 trillion will last not only through the end of the year, but almost certainly past year end 2014. Everything else is smoke and mirrors." Like the now annual debt ceiling farce.
[10]
Source: Reuters