Mishkin Nominated as Federal Reserve Governor

This is a very good choice:

Bush Picks Mishkin, Bernanke Ally, for Fed Governor, Bloomberg: Frederic S. Mishkin, a Columbia University scholar and an advocate of inflation targeting, was picked by President George W. Bush to serve as a Federal Reserve governor. ... Mishkin, a former head of research at the New York Fed, wrote a book on inflation targeting with Bernanke when the current Fed chairman was at Princeton University. ...

The board will have one more vacancy after the unrelated departure ... of Mark Olson, who last week was appointed head of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board... Bush has yet to announce a nominee for the slot Olson is vacating. ...

Mishkin, whose appointment is subject to Senate approval, would have a term running through January 2014, and he would be eligible for re-appointment to a full 14-year term.

The nomination also provides Bernanke with a policy expert who has authored 150 papers on monetary economics. ...

His nomination is greeted with the following news on PCE inflation from the Dallas Fed:

May 2006: The trimmed-mean PCE inflation rate for May was an annualized 3.2 percent. According to the BEA, the overall PCE inflation rate for May was 4.5 percent, annualized, while the inflation rate for PCE excluding food and energy was 2.6 percent.

The tables below present data on the trimmed-mean PCE inflation rate and, for comparison, the overall PCE inflation and the inflation rate for PCE excluding food and energy. The tables give annualized one-month, six-month and 12-month inflation rates.

One-month PCE inflation, annual rate

Dec. 05 Jan. 06 Feb. 06 Mar. 06 Apr. 06 May 06 PCE -0.1 6.1 0.5 4.5 5.9 4.5 PCE excluding food & energy 1.6 2.2 1.4 4.0 3.0 2.6 Trimmed mean PCE 1.5 3.1 1.3 3.8 3.0 3.2

Six-month PCE inflation, annual rate

Dec. 05 Jan. 06 Feb. 06 Mar. 06 Apr. 06 May 06 PCE 2.9 3.3 2.6 1.4 1.9 3.5 PCE excluding food & energy 1.9 2.2 2.1 2.3 2.3 2.5 Trimmed mean PCE 2.3 2.5 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.7

12-month PCE inflation

Dec. 05 Jan. 06 Feb. 06 Mar. 06 Apr. 06 May 06 PCE 2.8 3.1 2.9 2.9 2.9 3.3 PCE excluding food & energy 2.0 1.9 1.8 2.0 2.1 2.1 Trimmed mean PCE 2.3 2.2 2.1 2.3 2.4 2.5

Note: These data are subject to revision