In April 2010, President Obama nominated MIT economist Peter Diamond to a seat on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. In October, Diamond received the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on labor markets. Yet Diamond will not be taking a seat on the Fed. As he explains in this NYT op-ed, he is withdrawing his nomination due to Republican opposition. Whether or not Diamond was the best pick for the Fed — some argue he has insufficient expertise on monetary policy — it is a problem that someone of his qualifications and expertise cannot be confirmed, and difficult to argue that the country is better off leaving another Fed seat vacant for the indefinite future.