Economist Mark Vaughan, who left one Federal Reserve Bank post last year and is taking another one this summer, thinks the central bank’s independence will become a hot topic soon in Washington. With the Fed’s balance sheet having ballooned to $2.2 trillion in assets and with Chairman Ben Bernanke’s term due to expire in January, Vaughan says, we can expect Congress to second-guess every aspect of recent Fed policy. If Bernanke decides not to seek reappointment, he adds,

There’s going to be a huge political debate over who his replacement is going to be. … And it’s vitally important that the world retain confidence in our economic and political institutions. The Fed needs to be democratically accountable for the kinds of things that we’re doing. But at the same time, we have to recognize that there’s a too-many-cooks problem.

Vaughan, currently a senior lecturer at Washington University, spoke Tuesday at the university’s Weidenbaum Center. He emphasized that he was only expressing his personal views, and said he hasn’t heard anyone inside the Fed express concern about independence.

Vaughan said he supports the Fed’s moves to increase liquidity in the financial system. Going forward,  he doesn’t believe that further drastic action will be necessary:

I think the monetary and fiscal stimulus we have provided is adequate. I think right now there’s nothing to do except sit and wait for things to turn around.

Vaughan was an assistant vice president at the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank from 2004 to 2008. In July, he will move to the Cleveland Fed to oversee research on systemic risk supervision.