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. President Joe Biden’s pick to be the Federal Reserve’s top Wall Street cop is dividing Big Banks and Big Oil. Sarah Bloom Raskin, who served as a Fed governor and as deputy Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, is well-known to financial institutions and widely respected. Sure, she’s a more progressive candidate than the banks would pick if they had their druthers, industry sources have told MM. But she’s viewed as pragmatic and a known quantity — much preferred over someone they don’t know — who will hear them out and understands the issues, even if she takes a different view. (Raskin would likely take a tougher stance than her predecessor on merger approvals, stress tests and climate oversight, analysts have said.) The Institute of International Bankers on Friday said Raskin’s experience “demonstrates her intellect, qualifications, and commitment to transparency and integrity.” (That followed earlier supportive statements from leaders of the Financial Services Forum and American Bankers Association.) Bottom line: Wall Street isn’t coming out swinging against her nomination. The energy industry is a different story. Forty-one oil and gas trade groups sent a joint letter to the Senate Banking Committee Friday urging them to reject Raskin’s nomination , calling her an activist and saying her “favored policies would wreak havoc with the economy.” (The American Petroleum Institute, one of the largest oil and gas trades, did not sign the letter and has declined to take a position on Raskin’s nomination, though CEO Mike Sommers has said he has “major concerns about the Fed going beyond its dual mandate” on climate-related supervision.) That letter followed a rare missive Thursday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which urged the committee to question Raskin over her calls for the Fed to exclude oil and gas firms from pandemic lending programs, and for regulators to speed up the transition to fossil fuels. So far, that message seems to be carrying more weight with committee Republicans, including Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who has warned that Raskin will “choke off credit” to traditional energy firms. Whether that will influence moderate Democrats with energy-heavy constituencies, such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) or Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), remains to be seen. The committee will meet Thursday to consider Raskin’s nomination, as well as the president’s two other Fed picks, economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson. Ready for battle — What’s clear is that Democrats and supporters of the president’s nominees are much better prepared to play defense — on all of the Fed picks — than they were during the nomination battle over Saule Omarova, Biden’s choice to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who ultimately withdrew. The White House lined up prominent economists on the left and right, including former officials from the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, to vouch for the picks before the president’s announcement. Dozens of other economists last week tweeted out messages endorsing Cook after some opponents questioned her credentials for the job. The National Economic Association, a caucus of Black economists, issued a statement Sunday supporting Cook and Jefferson, both of whom are past presidents of the organization. Today, Better Markets is releasing a 13-page memo , shared first with MM, that compares statements on climate change from Fed Chair Jay Powell, former Vice Chair Randal Quarles and financial industry executives to comments from Raskin, and argues that her views on climate risk are “fully aligned” with the others’. They accuse critics of distorting Raskin’s views by cherry picking them and taking them out of context — including Toomey’s claim that Raskin has said the Fed should pressure banks to choke off credit to traditional energy companies. (Raskin said the Fed should incentivize a rapid and orderly transition away from fossil fuels, “for example, by considering whether high-emission assets will require limits in order to keep them from creating unsafe and unsound conditions to the financial institution that holds them,” according to the memo.) “Raskin has been clear that she will focus on the Fed’s legal mandates to ensure safety and soundness, financial stability and risk identification and mitigation, regardless of the source, just like Chair Powell and former Vice Chair Quarles,” the memo said. Expect the messaging battle to heat up this week ahead of Thursday’s hearing. IT’S MONDAY — Wishing we were still curled up by the fire with a good book. (The only way to spend a frigid weekend, blizzard or no blizzard.) But enough of that! We’ve got Fed nominations and Jobs Day this week. What else do you want to read about? Email us: kdavidson@politico.com, or aweaver@politico.com, or find us on Twitter: @ katedavidson or @ aubreeeweaver.
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