Randall Kroszner, an academic economist and former member of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), was interviewed last week for the vacant position on the Federal Reserve's board of governors.

Mr Kroszner, a professor at the University of Chicago's graduate school of business, met senior White House staff to discuss the position, but there is no guarantee that he will be nominated, according to two people familiar with the administration's deliberations.