BlackRock’s Rick Rieder Emerges as Strong Candidate for Federal Reserve Chair
Plus, ABC News, Ellison’s Paramount fawn over Zohran Mamdani
The Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said this week that President Trump’s choice for the next chairman of the Federal Reserve has been narrowed down to five candidates. Two of them, Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman, are already Fed governors. A third, Kevin Warsh, is a former Fed governor. A fourth, Kevin Hassett, was at the American Enterprise Institute for a while and is now a Trump aide as director of the National Economic Council. The “two Kevins” have been talked about as Fed chair possibilities for months and months now.
The exciting newer name on the list that is worth focusing on is the one currently in the private sector—BlackRock’s Rick Rieder. A 2023 profile of him in Investor’s Business Daily reported he wakes up at “3:45 a.m. seven days a week” and has hanging in his office a uniform jersey of “Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., who played 2,632 games in a row.”
If you look at how Trump chooses people, he frequently likes to hire for important posts those who have made a lot of money in the private sector.
Rieder’s recent public and private presentations offer a window into his thinking.
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