McDonough Named to Head New York Federal Reserve Bank
William J. McDonough, an executive at the First National Bank,of Chicago for most of his career and executive vice president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank since early last year, yesterday was named president of the New York bank, the most important of the Federal ReserveÛªs 12 regional institutions.</br></br>McDonough, 59, was chosen by the New York FedÛªs board of directors with the approval of the Federal Reserve Board here. He will succeed E. Gerald Corrigan, who announced in January that he would resign effective Aug. 20.</br></br>EHen V. Futter, president of Barnard College and chairman of the New York Fed board of directors, said in a prepared statement that McDonough was chosen from among 50 candidates because of his "long and distinguished career in both the public and private sectors, together with his broad-based knowledge of the workings of financial institutions and financial markets, both nationally and internationally.ÛªÛª</br></br>In a statement of his own, McDonough said the FedÛªs monetary policy should be focused "on achieving sustained economic growth. That requires prices stability, meaning low levels of inflation. How low? Low enough so that the fear of inflation does not distort in-</br></br>Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the other senior central bank officials who serve on the Federal Open Market Committee, the top monetary policy-making group, generally hold the same view about the goals for monetary policy.