Former Kennedy Adviser Top Candidate for Key Fed Post

WASHINGTON —  George L. Perry, former economic adviser to President John F. Kennedy, will be recommended to President Clinton for a key Federal Reserve Board opening, an Administration official said Monday.

“He’s the recommendation of the (President’s) economic team,” the official, who spoke on condition he not be identified, said.

Perry, a moderate liberal, confirmed that he is interested in the position, but he has yet to be interviewed for the post. With Clinton traveling in Europe until Sunday, no final decision is expected for at least a week.

If selected to replace the hawkish Fed Governor Wayne Angell, Perry would bring a temperate voice to the Fed’s monetary policy deliberations, reinforcing its centrist ranks, analysts said.

Perry would possibly lean “toward favoring growth over inflation in the short term,” said David Jones, chief economist at Aubrey G. Lanston & Co.

Angell, a Kansas farmer and businessman whose Fed term expires Jan. 31, is a maverick who has stressed that the greatest enemy to growth is inflation.

With monetary policy at a crossroads, Clinton is expected to act quickly to get his pick for the Fed confirmed by the Senate and in place in time for the next policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee meeting, scheduled for Feb. 3-4.

The central bank’s next move is likely to be a tightening of credit to prevent a resurgence of price pressures, now that the economic comeback is strong.

But the Administration over the past month repeatedly has warned against premature action. It fears that pushing up interest rates too soon would dampen the recovery’s strength.

Perry, an economist at Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy research center, since 1969, holds views that appear more in line with White House thinking.

Until late last year, Perry was a member of the Los Angeles Times Board of Economists.