Fischer, Brainard to push for more activist Fed

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters):  The two new nominees to the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors are expected to push for an expanded Fed role in managing the US economy, working to replace the current raft of programs that resulted from the financial crisis with more permanent tools.

The arrival of former Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and former US Treasury official Lael Brainard will add two strong voices to back Chair Janet Yellen's view that loose monetary policy needs to be extended to turn around a slack labor market.

Fischer intervened directly in Israel's mortgage market to tackle a real estate bubble, while Brainard pushed EU governments hard for more aggressive action from the European Central Bank during the euro zone crisis.