Editor’s Note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. Too dovish. Too woke. Too green. Critics of President Joe Biden’s new nominees to the Federal Reserve Board are sharpening their arguments and laying the groundwork for Senate Republican opposition to the trio of candidates, according to a GOP aide who previewed the case that senators could make. Biden last week tapped former Fed governor and deputy Treasury secretary Sarah Bloom Raskin to serve as the Fed’s top official overseeing bank supervision. He also picked Ph.D. economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson to serve on the board. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, a bellwether for Republican talking points, took the first swipe Monday, saying the president’s nominees “seem less worried about prices than pushing progressive policies that aren’t the Fed’s job.” The editorial quoted extensively from Raskin’s writings on the need to tackle risks from climate change, including a New York Times op-ed in which she called on the Fed to exclude oil and gas companies from its pandemic emergency-lending facilities and to direct investments to more innovative and environmentally friendly industries. “The Fed’s unique independence affords it a powerful role, and its mandate includes ensuring both the stability of the financial system and full employment,” Raskin wrote in May 2020. “Climate change threatens financial stability; addressing it can create economic opportunity and more jobs.” The WSJ ed board’s take: Raskin’s views “should especially concern Democrats, such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Montana’s Jon Tester, whose state economies depend on fossil fuels.” Economist John Cochrane, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, also weighed in Tuesday, calling Raskin “superbly qualified and experienced” but warning, “If you don't like these policy preferences, that makes her more dangerous as she has the knowledge and skill to implement them.” Cochrane also claimed Cook has written “essentially nothing related to monetary policy … or other traditional Fed topics” for prestigious academic journals — an argument Senate Republicans could raise at her hearing. He then listed some of her recent published work, including pieces on how addressing inequality can unleash economic growth and how addressing labor market disparities can boost wages and power innovation — ideas we’ve heard Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself opine on in his congressional testimony. (Here’s Cook in 2020, to NPR’s Planet Money, talking about the barriers she faced to getting her research published.) Senate Republicans may raise concerns that Raskin and Cook would be too dovish and would politicize the central bank by pushing it into new policy areas that have nothing to do with the Fed’s dual mandate to promote stable prices and maximum employment, the aide said. As we reported in MM last week, former Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke, a George W. Bush appointee, called that accusation against Raskin “simply false.” “I saw every day, Sarah’s commitment to the Fed’s dual mandate, its independence, and its culture of collegiality. It would be contrary to her nature to do anything else.” So far, the nominees, including Davidson College professor Jefferson, have garnered praise from across the political and ideological spectrum. Glenn Hubbard, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Bush administration, said Raskin “brings a wealth of experience to a Fed role,” and said “Cook’s talents as an economic researcher and teacher make her a good nominee for the Fed, adding to diversity of perspectives about policy.” Rob Nichols, president of the American Bankers Association, congratulated the nominees last week and said they “would bring a wide range of economic, regulatory and academic experience to the Board of Governors.” Cam Fine, the former president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, called them an “outstanding group of nominees.” Despite the early grumblings from the right, Stephen Myrow, managing partner at Beacon Policy Advisers and a former Bush Treasury official, said he thinks most of the nominees can get at least one Republican vote. And he doubts that Manchin or Tester will choose to take a stand on climate by voting against a Fed nominee. “These guys are what we call progressive institutionalists,” Myrow said of the picks. “Which is what we see Biden as — he’s gone where the Democratic party has gone in terms of moving left, he just wants to work within the existing system.” Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown said Tuesday he plans to hold the nomination hearings in early February, our Victoria Guida reported. IT’S WEDNESDAY — Peloton has announced it is raising the price of its flagship bike, citing inflation and supply chain pressures. And your MM host is suddenly feeling pretty smug about getting on the bandwagon when she did (two weeks ago). What’s your weirdest/best pandemic impulse purchase? Let us know (and send your tips and ideas, too!) to kdavidson@politico.com or aweaver@politico.com, or on Twitter @katedavidson and @aubreeeweaver. | 
