Kashkari Likely First Fed Voter to Take Paternity Days for FOMC

(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari isn’t attending the central bank’s two-day policy meeting after the birth of his second child this week, probably the first time a U.S. central banker has missed a meeting to care for a new baby, historians say.

Robert Hetzel, an economist at the Richmond Fed from 1975 to 2018 and author of a book on the history of the central bank, said he’s unaware of any such meeting abstention in the past. Gary Richardson, who served as Fed historian from 2012 to 2016, also believes it’s a first, especially for a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which Kashkari is this year.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will vote in his place. Minneapolis first vice president Ron Feldman will attend the two-day meeting, which wraps up Thursday, for the reserve bank. Policy makers will release a statement at 2 p.m. Washington time, followed 30 minutes later by a press conference with Chair Jerome Powell.

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