Former Bank of Israel head gets Fed vice chair nod

Friday, January 10, 2014, Vol. 38, No. 2

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama intends to nominate Stanley Fischer to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Fischer is a former head of the Bank of Israel. He would succeed Janet Yellen, who's succeeding Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Fischer is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. He's considered a leading expert on monetary policy.

He was a long-time professor at MIT, and Bernanke was one of his students.

Obama also is nominating Lael Brainard as a Fed governor. Brainard served as the undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury during Obama's first term and left the administration recently.

Fischer was chief economist at the World Bank and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He led the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013.