The Spat Over a Fed Seat for Peter Diamond

摘要

Peter A. Diamond, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1966 and a diehard Boston Red Sox fan, last year shared the Nobel Prize in economics and was invited to throw out the first pitch at a home game in Fenway Park. He's getting a chillier reception in Congress, which has refused since August to confirm him as a Federal Reserve Board governor. President Barack Obama has nominated him three times, but Diamond, 70, has become a pawn in a game of political tit-for-tat. Diamond's nomination cleared the Senate Banking Committee in July, only to be rejected for a floor vote by Republicans, who invoked an obscure Senate procedural rule.