Jeremy C. Stein, a Harvard professor who worked briefly for the Obama administration in early 2009, has particular expertise in the workings of financial markets.
Jerome H. Powell, currently a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, brings private sector experience in the same area. He worked for almost a decade as a partner at the Carlyle Group, a private equity fund. Mr. Powell also served as Treasury under secretary for finance in the administration of President George H. W. Bush.
In a statement, Mr. Obama lauded their “impressive knowledge of economic and monetary policy.”
The nominations end months of waiting for the White House to resume its effort to fill the vacancies after it was forced to withdraw the nomination of an earlier candidate, the Nobel Prize laureate Peter Diamond, because Senate Republicans would not allow a vote.
The inclusion of Mr. Powell, a Republican, could help to smooth the way for Senate confirmation of both nominations this time around. But Senate Republicans are blocking a number of other nominations for vacancies at other financial regulatory agencies.
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