Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein gave a less-than full-throated endorsement when asked on Wednesday whether Gary Cohn would make a good chairman of the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one\u2019s perfect, but he\u2019s the best I know,\u201d Blankfein said of Cohn, his former No. 2 at Goldman Sachs, during a talk with journalists on Wednesday at the bank\u2019s headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d be a different kind of person\u201d than Fed Chair Yellen, Blankfein added. \u201cHe\u2019s not an academic. I don\u2019t know that he reads a lot of policy papers, let alone write them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blankfein\u2019s lukewarm comments came weeks after Trump himself floated Cohn, who is currently director of the National Economic Council, for the role atop the US central bank in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if Cohn will ever get the job, however. Trump has reportedly cooled on the ex-Goldman banker after Cohn criticized the president\u2019s response<\/a> to white supremacists gathering in Charlottesville, Va. last month. Still, Trump has wavered before installing advisers in top job before, as in the case of ex-communications manager Anthony Scaramucci.<\/p>\n The top job at the Fed is set to open up in late January when Fed Chair Janet Yellen\u2019s term expires.<\/p>\n On the positive side, Blankfein said \u201cGary is very, very capable,\u201d and that \u201cthere is nobody who has a better sense of markets, or the consequence that decisions will have, on people\u2019s behavior who act and are guided by market forces.\u201d<\/p>\n