Richard Shelby, the most senior Republican member of the US Senate Banking Committee, on Tuesday set out the reasons for which he has rejected and will continue to reject the nomination of Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond to the Federal Reserve Board.

Diamond, who was in January nominated for the post of Fed governor for the third time in less than a year, was undoubtedly "a very accomplished academic and economist", Shelby said. "Nevertheless, a reasonable comparison of the qualities