Fed Nominee, Nobelist Diamond Takes on Alfalfa Bill

Nobel laureate Peter Diamond faced Republican opposition in his first chance to be approved for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Now he may run afoul of a dead Democrat called Alfalfa Bill.

Diamond, whose nomination will come before the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow for a second time, is a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was grilled about his monetary-policy qualifications in July, before he won the Nobel Prize in economics. This time he’s at risk of being tripped up by a provision that no two board members may be from the same Federal Reserve district.