Economy and Politics

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama has narrowed his choice for the next Federal Reserve chairman "to some extraordinarily qualified candidates" and will announce his nominee "over the next several months," he told the New York Times. In an interview on July 24, Obama said his nominee for Fed chair should be someone who understands the Fed's dual mandate of price stability and keeping the unemployment rate low. Obama said he hasn't made a final decision about who to name. Speculation has focused on former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Janet Yellen, the current vice chairman of the Fed. The interview was released on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve must move swiftly to end its asset purchase program, according to Jeffrey Lacker, the president of the Richmond Fed Bank, according to reports of an interview with a German magazine on Saturday "We must make our exit from the bond-buying program quick," Lacker said. The Richmond Fed president has never been a supporter of the $85-billion-a-month asset purchase program. He does not vote on policy decisions this year. But his remarks show that some senior Fed officials will be pressing their colleagues not to delay plans to taper the asset purchases. Top Fed officials will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to chart the course of monetary policy for the next six weeks. Fed watchers think the odds are high that the Fed will wait until September to start to slow down its asset purchases. In the interview, Lacker said that the quantitative easing program had done little to boost the economy.

Thousands of demonstrators remained celebrating early Saturday morning in Cairo's Tahrir Square and outside Ittihadiya Palace, protesting pro-Morsi activists who continue to resist the new military-backed government. Video by WSJ's Matt Bradley.

Comments from President Obama Friday about Ho Chi Minh prove surprising to some.

Senators will be questioning top officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday about whether implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law is moving too slowly as it moves into it third year.

Doubts rise about China's ability to maintain growth rates.

Egyptians braced for confrontations between hundreds of thousands of rival protesters as prosecutors ramped up accusations against ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Matt Bradley reports from Cairo, and Washington Institute Next Generation Fellow Dr. Eric Trager offers analysis. Photo: AP.

Public-sector unions call for federal aid to avoid benefit cuts during city's bankruptcy filing; unions lose in court ruling.